Energy (and Other) Events is a weekly mailing list published most Sundays covering events around the Cambridge, MA and greater
Boston area that catch the editor's eye.
Hubevents http://hubevents.blogspot.com is the web version.
If you wish to subscribe or unsubscribe to Energy (and Other) Events email gmoke@world.std.com
What I Do and Why I Do It: The Story of Energy (and Other) EventsGeo
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Details of these events are available when you scroll past the index
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Index
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Monday, September 23 – Tuesday, September 24
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Indigenous Knowledge in Coastal Resilience
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Monday, September 23
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9:30am Inside the Negotiator's World: Negotiating North Korea's Denuclearization
11am Wind Technology Testing Center Tour
12pm Program on Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate [PAOC] Colloquium - Speaker: Dorian Abbot
12pm Carbon Processing in Aquatic Critical Zones: Biogeochemical Challenges in the 21st Century
12:10pm Social Resilience: Understanding how Environmental Stressors Impact the Behavior and Health of Bees
12:15pm Computational Social Science: 10 Years Later
3pm Can Floridians Unite America to Lead on Climate? Insights from South Florida and Capitol Hill by former U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL)
4:30pm Study Group with Bob Cohn: Journalism and Politics in an Age of Disruption
4:30pm The Environmental Bias of Trade Policy
5pm 2019 Walker Prize Lecture: "The Origin of Life on the Early Earth”
5pm Kickoff Event: The Born Global Foundation’s Competition for Innovation in Sustainability
5:30pm Gurus, Women, and Yoga: The Spiritual World of Hindu Universalism
6pm A conversation with Ai-jen Poo and Palak Shah
6pm ACT Fall 2019 Lecture Series: The Inexplicable Wonder of Precipitous Events -- Sarah Oppenheimer
6pm Lifespan: Why We Age and Why We Don't Have To
6pm History Café 3: Engaging through the Arts
7pm Indebted: How Families Make College Work at Any Cost and The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students
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Tuesday, September 24 - Monday, September 30
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Climate Preparedness Week - September 24-30
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Tuesday, September 24
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8am In Brookline, Climate is Everybody's Business
8:30am IxDA Boston & Creative Mornings Boston | Emotionally Intelligent Design
9am MIT Quest Workshop on Collective Intelligence
11am URGENT Action to Get Big Money Out of Politics
12pm Speaker Series: Suraj Yengde
12pm A New Jim Code? ON RACE, CARCERAL TECHNOSCIENCE, AND LIBERATORY IMAGINATION IN EVERYDAY LIFE JUSTICE, EQUITY, & INCLUSION
12pm Is the Cold War Strategic Triangle Reviving? Sino-Russian Relations in the Trump Era
12:30pm IDG Development Seminars: Ciro Biderman
4pm Biology Colloquium Series: The Coming of Age of De Novo Protein Design
4pm MMEC Seminar - Bioinspired Design of Structural and Thermal Interface Materials
4:15pm Thinking Like a Magician
5pm Berkman Klein & Friends Open House Showcase
5:30pm Fulbright University Vietnam: Sustainability in New Campus Design
5:30pm I'm Taking a Job in Charlotte: How the High Cost of Housing is Hurting Massachusetts Businesses
6pm Tales from the Trail
6pm What Psychedelics Teach Us About Spirituality
6pm The Fears Have Gone Away: Exploring the Roots of Insurgent Citizenship in India’s Bhil Heartland
6pm A Golden Civilization and The Map of Mindfulness
6pm Climate Change in the Local Wild
6pm PKG Community Conversations: Tech for Social Good
6pm DeepMind - Company Presentation
6:30pm A Global Ecology Journey: Prioritizing Earth-Centered Ethics
6:30pm Boston University Student-Faculty Forum: Learning from the Responses to The New York Times 1619 Project
6:30pm Wicked Hot Boston
7pm The City-State of Boston
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Wednesday, September 25 - Friday, September 27
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Introduction to Movement Strategy
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Wednesday, September 25
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10am What if North Korea Attacked? Japanese, South Korean, and U.S. Public Opinion on the Nuclear Umbrella
11am BU Annual Sustainability Festival
12pm Disruptive Technologies for Resilient and Sustainable Cities
12pm Great expectations or nothing to lose? Socio-economic correlates of joining the Islamic State
12:30pm EPP Seminar: Frans Evers - Negotiating a Energy Transition in the Netherlands
3pm Discussion on banning natural (fracked) gas infrastructure in Cambridge
3pm Rising Temperatures, Rising Costs: The Increasing Global Energy Needs that Come with a Changing Climate
4pm LifeHub AgConnect: When The Well Runs Dry
5pm Erion Veliaj | Redesigning for the People
5:30pm Mathematics for Human Flourishing
5:30pm Sunrise Movement Fall Potluck and Community Meeting
6pm The Politics of Difference: Race, Technology, and Inclusion
6pm Morality & Altruism
6pm Great Decisions: The Rise of Populism in Europe
6pm TEDxCambridge Salon Series: Morality & Altruism
6pm The World in a Shilling: Money and Political Economy in Early New England
6pm Boston Food Access Council
6pm Climate Ready Dorchester 1st Community Open House
6:30pm Harvard Philosophy Department Faculty and ThinkerAnalytix Panel
6:30pm Heading for Extinction (and What to Do about It)
6:30pm General Assembly presents: Artificial Intelligence for Good
6:45pm Cambridge Council Candidates Night: Our Local Environment
7pm Anthropocene: The Human Epoch
7pm An evening with Holocaust Survivor Sami Steigman
7pm Take Back the Grid Town Hall
7pm THE END OF MEAT?
7pm The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty
8pm Webinar: Back from the Brink—Organizing Locally to Prevent Nuclear War
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Thursday, September 26
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11am The Carbin App: Cutting CO2 Emissions and Monitoring the Performance of our Roads
12pm Can You Hear Me Here?: Understanding and Protecting Underwater Soundscapes in US National Marine Sanctuaries
12:115pm Ruling Beyond Empire: The "White Rajahs" of Sarawak, Coercion, and Balancing
3pm Advanced Materials for High Energy Density Li-ion Batteries
3pm Social Entrepreneurship with Melissa Corto and Namya Mahajan
3pm Technology, Community Activism, and Public Health: Using NoiseScore to Address Community Noise Issues
4pm HILR Convocation 2019: Heidi Schreck
4:15pm Evolving Climate-Change Policy in the Republic of Korea—and the World
5pm Poet/Programmers, Artist/Programmers, and Scholar/Programmers: What and Who Are They?
5pm Public Lecture with Dean George Q. Daley
5pm “Is this thing on?!” An Orientation to Podcasting for Social Change
5:30pm Chicago Public Schools: A Transformation Story: A conversation with Janice Jackson on life after 30 years of education reform
5:45pm Tree Mob: From Solar Power to Flower Power
6:30pm Race After Technology
6:30pm Cooked: Survival by Zipcode
7pm Authors@MIT | Jeanne Ross, Cynthia Beath & Martin Mocker: Designed for Digital
7pm The Rabbit Effect: Live Longer, Happier, and Healthier with the Groundbreaking Science of Kindness
7pm They Will Have to Die Now: Mosul and the Fall of the Caliphate
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Friday, September 27
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8am NU Energy Conference
8am Materials Day 2019: Nano)materials for Biosensing and Diagnostics
9am New England Electricity Restructuring Roundtable (#163)
State Utility Regulators & NE's Clean Energy Future; and scaling Up Off-Shore Wind
10am The U.S. – Central America Immigration Crisis: Learn how it started, why it continues, and what you can do to make a difference
11am Europe’s Strategic Role in Tackling Today’s Global Challenges
11am Cooked: Survival by Zipcode
12pm Detailed comparisons of smog chamber measurements and chemical mechanistic simulations to improve secondary organic aerosol formation mechanisms
12pm Global food security with sustainable groundwater withdrawals: a collaboration between hydrologists and agricultural economists
12pm We're Not Going Anywhere, Baker: Office Takeover
2pm Moral Budget for MA
2:30pm Mass Meditation: Love for the Earth, Love for the Future
3pm In the Shadow of Justice: Postwar Liberalism and the Remaking of Political Philosophy
3:30pm Ethics & Computing: Data as Collectively Generated Patterns: Making Sense of Data Ownership
3:30pm Flood The Seaport
4pm The Price of Free: Film Screening and Conversation with Kailash Satyarthi
5:30pm Follow Chester!: A College Football Team Fights Racism and Makes History”
6pm Digital Anxieties: A Conversation with Bo Burnham and Jonny Sun
6:30pm Digital Archeology, Virtual Narratives: The Case of Lifta
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Saturday, September 28 - Monday, September 30
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Horizon 19
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Saturday, September 28
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9am Active Hope - The Work That Reconnects
9:30am Creative Climate Commitment with Susan Israel
10am Innovative Stable Housing Initiative Idea Incubator
10:30am Let's Talk About Food: Saving the Planet One Bite at a Time
3pm Revolutionary Change, Not Climate Change
5pm TEACH IN: Immigrant Exploitation, the Burning of the Amazon, and University Food Contracts
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Sunday, September 29
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9am Interactive Meditation on the Climate Crisis
10am Sunrise Boston Orientation Training
2pm Sunrise Boston Presentations & Outreach Training!
2:30pm Somerville Growing Center: Harvest Fair
3pm Be the Change: Lisa Fithian, Shut it Down
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Monday, September 30
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8am SENSE.nano SYMPOSIUM
11:45am The Design and Analysis of a U.S. Carbon Tax
12pm Program on Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate [PAOC] Colloquium
12pm Multi-decadal Variability in the North Atlantic Jet Stream, Its Connection to Ocean Variability and the Implications for Decadal Prediction
12:10pm Deer in the Suburbs
12:15pm When Repair Becomes Harm: Science, Law, and the Pursuit of Justice in Chile
12:30pm Mobilizing Climate Finance: How and Why Fund Design Matters
4:30pm Voting for Strongmen: Nationalist and Populist Leadership in Brazil and India
5:30pm Greentown Labs Circularity Challenge Kickoff
6pm The Peril and Promise of Solar Geoengineering
7pm How Finance Works: The HBR Guide to Thinking Smart About the Numbers
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Tuesday, October 1 - Thursday, October 3
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Hubweek 2019 Fall Festival
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Tuesday, October 1
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12pm Cambridge's Waste... the good, the bad, the cleen, the dirty
12pm Speaker Series: Brandi Collins-Dexter
12pm Tuesday Seminar Series: Democratic Deepening and Political Parties: The National Implementation of Binding Participatory Institutions
12:30pm Use of Systems Thinking and Causal Loop Diagrams to Understand Transportation Planning Challenges
1pm Energy Efficiency Jobs in America: Leading America’s Energy Sector Workforce
2:30pm Beyond the Headlines: The Russia Trap
5:30pm Humanitarianism and Mass Migration: Confronting the World Crisis
6pm Raj Rewal: Timeless Rasa & the Spirit of Our Times for Epic Works
6pm Civil Rights and the Environment
6pm Owning It! Sustainability and Worker Cooperatives
6:30pm The Three Dimensions of Freedom
7pm These Truths: A History of the United States
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My rough notes on some of the events I go to and notes on books I’ve read are at:
Agrophotovoltaics, Agriphotovoltaics, Solar Sharing
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Monday, September 23 - Friday, September 27
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Global Climate Strike
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Monday, September 23 – Monday, September 30
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Dia-Logs: Encouraging Climate Conversations
Monday, September 23 – Monday, September 30
9am - 5pm
Front Lawn of Hunnewell Visitor Center, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Jamaica Plain
Have a seat on one of our Dia-logs and strike up a climate conversation. We’ll provide discussion prompts and facts. You take it from there to share your thoughts and hear those of others. Are you hopeful or fearful? Paralyzed by negative news or motivated to change how you live? Our Dia-logs offer an opportunity to connect within our human community in response to our rapidly changing climate. We’ll have Dia-logs for adults and for children, with age-appropriate conversation starters.
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Monday, September 23 – Tuesday, September 24
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Indigenous Knowledge in Coastal Resilience
Monday, September 23, 9 AM – Tuesday, September 24, 6 PM
MIT, DUSP, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
With this workshop, our research team seeks to promote scholarly and practice-oriented contributions rooted in knowledge sharing around experiences with climate adaptation and relocation. Participants will include members of the Isle de Jean Charles, LA band of the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw tribe, members of the Yupik people from Newtok, AK, and scholars working on resettlement issues from DUSP, the Lowlander Center, Louisiana, and elsewhere. More broadly, this workshop will provide an opportunity for dialogue and knowledge sharing to better scope out the challenges to equitable relocation planning and the opportunities for uncovering latent and unaddressed values in the planning process.
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Monday, September 23
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Inside the Negotiator's World: Negotiating North Korea's Denuclearization
Monday, September 23
9:30 AM – 7:00 PM EDT
The Charles Hotel (Longfellow Room), 1 Bennett Street, Cambridge
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Wind Technology Testing Center Tour
Monday, September 23
11:00am to 1:00pm
Wind Technology Testing Center 100 Terminal Street (Building 80) Charlestown
Cost: $10 Members;$30 Non-Members: $10 Students; $5 Student Members
Offshore wind in Massachusetts is taking off as an economical source of clean energy. Vineyard Wind, the first offshore wind project in Massachusetts waters, is slated to begin construction soon. There could be anywhere from 5,000 MW to 10,000 MW built off the coast of Massachusetts south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket in the future. The MassCEC Wind Technology Testing Center will be a part of the offshore wind story.
Wind turbine blade testing is a critical factor in maintaining high levels of reliability and evaluating the latest technological developments in airfoils and materials. Blade testing is required as part of turbine certification to meet international design standards including IEC, GL and DNV. Meeting international standards allows developers to mitigate the technical and financial risk of deploying mass-produced wind turbines.
The WTTC offers a full suite of certification tests for turbine blades up to 90 meters in length and is the largest commercial-scale blade testing center in the nation. WTTC is innovating and constantly improving testing methods to better represent field operations in the lab and to improve testing efficiency for wind industry partners.
See how the science happens!
Please join us for a tour, lunch and networking at the Wind Technology Testing Center on September 23, at 11:00 AM. 100 Terminal Street (Building 80), Boston (Charlestown), MA - space is limited to 25 so register early!
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Program on Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate [PAOC] Colloquium - Speaker: Dorian Abbot
Monday, September 23
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-915 (Ida Green Lounge), 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
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Carbon Processing in Aquatic Critical Zones: Biogeochemical Challenges in the 21st Century
Monday, September 23
12:00PM
Harvard, Haller Hall (102), Geo Museum, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Thomas Bianchi, Professor and Chair in Geological Sciences, University of Florida
This “re-plumbing” of the earth’s surface, recently referred to as Anthroturbation, rapidly expanded during the Industrial Revolution (~1800 CE) and the “Great Acceleration” (~ 1950 CE), leading to the concept of the Anthropocene. Some of the most compelling questions regarding the effects of the Anthropocene are how has this manipulation of the surface of our planet impacted the organisms and biogeochemistry of aquatic ecosystems, and how will these changes continue into the future? Although the general concept of critical zones has been somewhat included aquatic systems, I propose that these dynamic and vulnerable corridors of change are worthy of their own designation as aquatic critical zones (ACZs). While natural ACZs have always existed, anthropogenic “re-plumbing” of ACZs has resulted in alterations of their spatiotemporal patterns, and their response, from the molecular to organismal level, needs greater consideration in global biogeochemical models. The impacts of anthropogenic and climate effects on ecosystems, from gene to landscape scales, need to be better explored. Here, I discuss adaptive biogeochemical and organismal ramifications of global change on ACZs, along with potential hydrologic, geomorphic, and ecosystem services that could be linked to define ACZs as a critical research area. Finally, I posit that the poleward biogeographic shifts of organisms in response to climate warming will impact global biogeochemistry - with an emphasis on carbon cycling.
Short Bio & Research: I am currently a full professor and holder of the Jon and Beverly Thompson Endowed Chair in Geological Sciences at the University of Florida (UF), Gainesville, Florida. Before joining UF I held full professor positions at Tulane University and Texas A&M University. My general areas of expertise are organic geochemistry, chemical oceanography, and global carbon cycling in aquatic ecosystems. I have published over 230 articles in refereed journals and am sole and/or co-author of 7 books, with another book on Chemical Oceanography of the Gulf of Mexico - due out in 2019. I am currently Editor-in-Chief of the journal Marine Chemistry, and have served as an Associate Editor for numerous other journals. I am the recipient of two Fulbright Research Awards, became a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2012, in 2017 was named Geochemical Fellow of the Geochemical Society (GS) and The European Association of Geochemistry (EAG), Fellow of the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO), in 2018 was recipient of the Qilu Friendship Medal/Award from the Shandong Province of China, and most recently became Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in 2019.
Many of the central issues in research concerning global climate change involve understanding the exchange and transport of organic and inorganic pools of carbon – in the context of the global carbon budget. If we are to successfully balance and model global carbon fluxes, it is important to understand the dynamics of carbon cycling in the most productive environments. In general, the most productive environments are located in land-margin ecosystems such as watershed soils, freshwater, and marine coastal systems. During the past few years my research has centered on organic carbon cycling from source-to-sink with work focused on the transport of soils in watersheds of large river systems to coastal environments. I have used state-of-the-art techniques to determine the role of terrestrial versus aquatic carbon sources in the overall carbon cycles of these ecosystems.
EPS Colloquium
Contact Name: Summer Smith
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Social Resilience: Understanding how Environmental Stressors Impact the Behavior and Health of Bees
Monday, September 23
12:10PM
Arnold Arboretum, Weld Hill Lecture Hall, 300 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain
James Crall, Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University
All talks are free and open to everyone. Watch live on the Arboretum’s YouTube channel if you are unable to attend in person. The streaming video is entitled “AA Research Talks Live” and is visible only when a live stream is scheduled or in progress.
Arnold Arboretum Research Talk
617-524-1718
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Computational Social Science: 10 Years Later
Monday, September 23
12:15PM TO 2:00PM
Harvard, CGIS S050, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
Karen Huang, Organizational Behavior/Harvard STS
Sandwich lunches are provided. Please RSVP to via the online form at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd7VGUkAvTU655Dub2FTGSNMjpVs6f8Qbu0kpmXh6oz11MgFw/viewform by Wednesday at 5PM the week before.
STS Circle at Harvard
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Can Floridians Unite America to Lead on Climate? Insights from South Florida and Capitol Hill by former U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL)
Monday, September 23
3:00-4:00 p.m. EDT
Webinar
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf-UfaznR3kFQ6rePyskccw9BhODwFW8hEuVtxwJbWxzQ0PFw/viewform
Our next speaker in the EcoRight Webinar Series is former U.S. Representative Carlos Curbelo!
Climate instability unites Floridians and often divides much of the rest of America.
Are we seeing signs of such polarization waning?
What can Floridians do to export a spirit of bipartisanship for solving climate change?
What will it take for climate change to become a bridge issue in America?
Join republicEn and the Evangelical Environmental Network for an hour-long webinar discussion with Congressman Curbelo, Republican founder of the House Climate Solutions Caucus and former U.S. Representative for Florida's 26th congressional district. This webinar is part of National Clean Energy Week.
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Study Group with Bob Cohn: Journalism and Politics in an Age of Disruption
WHEN Monday, Sep. 23, 2019, 4:30 – 5:45 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Institute of Politics (Littauer-163), 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Institute of Politics
SPEAKER(S) Bob Cohn
Nancy Gibbs, Former editor, TIME
Adam Moss, Former editor of New York Magazine and The New York Times Magazine
COST Free
DETAILS The changing media world. As digital upstarts (Vice, Vox, Drudge, Huffington Post) brought new tools and new sensibilities to political coverage, legacy media had to learn fast.
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The Environmental Bias of Trade Policy
Monday, September 23
4:30pm to 6:00pm
MIT, Building E52-532, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Joe Shapiro (University of California, Berkeley)
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2019 Walker Prize Lecture: "The Origin of Life on the Early Earth”
Monday, September 23
5:00 PM – 6:00 PM EDT
Museum of Science, 1 Science Park, Boston
Join us for the awarding of the 2019 Walker Prize to Jack W. Szostak, PhD and the presentation of his lecture The Origin of Life on the Early Earth.
THE WALKER PRIZE
Tha Walker Prize recognizes “meritorious published scientific investigation and discovery” in any scientific field. The recipient must be a noted scientist, professor, or researcher who is a superb science communicator via the written word and is well known for superlative work in her / his field. The prize was established in 1864 by Dr. William Johnson Walker, one of the most eminent surgeons of his era and a generous benefactor of the Boston Society of Natural History, the Museum’s founding organization.
2019 AWARDEE: Jack W. Szostak, PhD
Jack W. Szostak is an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard University, and the Alex Rich Distinguished Investigator in the Department of Molecular Biology and the Center for Computational and Integrative Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital. His early research on telomere structure and function and the role of telomere maintenance in preventing cellular senescence was recognized by the 2006 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award and the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. In the 1990s Szostak and his colleagues developed in vitro selection as a tool for the isolation of functional RNA, DNA, and protein molecules from large pools of random sequences. His current research interests are in the laboratory synthesis of self-replicating systems and the origin of life.
The event is free, but registration is required. Complimentary parking. Business casual dress.
Tickets do not need to be printed in advance, there will be a registration table in the lobby for check-in. Please include all names of attending guests to help facilitate the check-in process.
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Kickoff Event: The Born Global Foundation’s Competition for Innovation in Sustainability
Monday, September 23
5:00 pm to 6:00 pm
BU, 110 Cummington Mall, Room 245, Boston
Boston University’s College of Engineering is pleased to announce a novel design competition for innovations to impact the global challenge of sustainability, The Born Global Foundation’s Competition for Innovation in Sustainability. The competition is jointly run by the College of Engineering and the Institute for Sustainable Energy at Boston University. The competition is open to Boston University undergraduates and masters students and submissions must come from interdisciplinary teams. First place will receive $5,000, second place $2,500 and third place $1,500.
Winning teams will bring an interdisciplinary approach to create a newly formulated solution to a real world sustainability problem. The interdisciplinary teams must include engineering students as well students from non-engineering majors such as students from the Questrom School of Business, the College of Arts and Science, the School of Public Health, or the College of Fine Arts.
This year while projects related to all aspects of sustainability are welcome, the particular focus area is on innovative improvements in carbon recycling processes and materials. Related focus areas are in CO2 sequestration and how to reduce carbon footprints. Another area of interest as to its potential impact on CO2 levels in the atmosphere is application of biomimicry, in which natural and biological phenomena are emulated in an innovative way to address a sustainability challenge.
Winning teams will be judged on the efficacy of the technical innovation itself along with a business model for how such an innovation might become economically and ecologically feasible compared to current methods.
The competition is made possible via a generous gift from the Born Global Foundation headed by Dr. Kimberly Samaha, an alum of BU’s College of Engineering.
A kickoff event for the competition will be held Sept. 23rd from 5-6PM in 110 Cummington Mall, room 245 (ENG 245) at which Dr. Samaha will speak. The event will give students a deeper sense of the motivation and goals for engaging innovation in this space. The timeline for the competition will also be discussed including deadlines for pre-proposals and the down selection process. Pizza will be served.
RSVP if you intend to come to the Town Hall to hear more about this societal challenge and the competition.
Contact Organization College of Engineering & Institute for Sustainable Energy
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Gurus, Women, and Yoga: The Spiritual World of Hindu Universalism
WHEN Monday, Sep. 23, 2019, 5:30 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvar,d Common Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Religion
SPONSOR Center for the Study of World Religions
CONTACT CSWR, 617.495.4476
DETAILS Annual Hindu View of Life Lecture
After the World Parliament of Religions in 1893, Vivekananda became a global celebrity and an emissary of neo-Vedanta or Hindu Universalism in Europe and America. He brought the practice of Raja Yoga and new forms of Hindu teaching to Europe and America, shaping Western disciples searching for post-Christian spirituality. This lecture will examine how Vivekananda conveyed the meaning of ‘guru-bakhti’ to his new female disciples, and the spiritual lens through which he sought to mold them. He had grown up in an entirely male spiritual milieu, where the guru’s power was transmitted to worthy male aspirants. In the West, Vivekananda had to adapt much of his teaching (i.e. guru-disciple relationship and the practice of meditation) to encompass an entirely new world of feminine devotees, many of whom had engaged in spiritualism, hypnotherapy and, above all, Christian Science. Professor Harris argues that he had to adapt to their concerns while constantly differentiating neo-Vedanta from a host of competing, and his view, spiritually deficient, Western ideas and practices. He also had to protect neo-Vedanta and his own mission from the suspicion of luring women away from their native faith into a world of seductive ‘orientalism.’ Last and not least, pleased though he was by the loyalty and seriousness of his female devotees, he was keen to locate men who would lead the movement outside of India, yet he was much less successful recruiting men than women.
Ruth Harris is Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford and Senior Research Fellow at All Souls’ College. She has published widely in the history of religion, science, women’s history, French history, and more recently, global history.
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A conversation with Ai-jen Poo and Palak Shah
WHEN Monday, Sep. 23, 2019, 6 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Institute of Politics
SPEAKER(S) Ai-jen Poo, Co-founder and Executive Director, National Domestic Workers Alliance
Palak Shah, Founding Director, NDWA Labs; Social Innovations Director, National Domestic Workers Alliance
Moderator: Brittany Butler, Executive Director, The Social Innovation and Change Initiative, HKS
COST Free
CONTACT INFO RSVP_IOP@hks.harvard.edu
DETAILS A conversation with activists Ai-jen Poo and Palak Shah, moderated by Executive Director of the Social Innovation and Change Initiative Brittany Butler to discuss the future of the labor movement in America.
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ACT Fall 2019 Lecture Series: The Inexplicable Wonder of Precipitous Events -- Sarah Oppenheimer
Monday, September 23
6:00pm to 7:30pm
MIT, Building E15, The Cube, E15-001, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
As an artistic research program, ACT is perennially concerned with emerging modes of expression that explore evolving forms of knowledge production. In this context, the program’s Fall 2019 Lecture Series asks, “What is art if not an event?”
Philosopher Alain Badiou describes an event as a multiplication of conditions which may not always make sense according to the perceived rules of the ‘situation,’ and which, in coming into being, must provoke, out of a dynamic intervention, something new as that which cannot easily be assigned. The works of the four artists in the Fall 2019 ACT Lecture Series raise some of these same issues in terms of how one might consider the conditions of events in relation to the questions their individual projects explore. Each artist, in different ways, addresses how it is that art functions as an event.
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Lifespan: Why we Age and Why We Don't Have To
Monday, September 23
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EDT
Harvard Coop, 1400 Mass Avenue, Cambridge
From an acclaimed Harvard professor and one of Time’s most influential people, this paradigm shifting book shows how almost everything we think we know about aging is wrong, offers a front-row seat to the amazing global effort to slow, stop, and reverse aging, and calls readers to consider a future where aging can be treated.
LIFESPAN provides a road map for taking charge of our own health destiny and a bold new vision for the future when humankind is able to live to be 100 years young.
David A. Sinclair, PhD, AO is Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Founding Director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biological Mechanisms of Aging at Harvard. One of the leading innovators of his generation, he is listed by Time magazine as “one of the 100 most influential people in the world” (2014) and top 50 most important influential people in healthcare (2018). He is a board member of the American Federation for Aging Research, a Founding Editor of the journal Aging, and has received more than 35 awards for his research on resveratrol, NAD, and reprogramming to reverse aging, which have been widely hailed as a major scientific breakthroughs. In 2018, he became an Officer of the Order of Australia, the equivalent of a knighthood, for his work on national security matters and human longevity. Dr. Sinclair and his work have been featured on 60 Minutes, Today, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Fortune, and Newsweek, among others.
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History Café 3: Engaging through the Arts
Monday, September 23
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EDT (Doors open 6:00. Event begins 6:30.)
Central Square Theater, 450 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Cost: $10 – $60
As our last History Café of 2019, we reflect on how the arts can serve as a catalyst for– or reaction to– change.
In partnership with Central Square Theater, we invite artists David Fichter, Eryn Johnson, and Vincent Siders to discuss how the arts can serve as a catalyst for– or reaction to– change. We ask, how is their work informed by a history of social justice in the arts? Does this build on a legacy of such work in Cambridge? Dr. Marty Blatt will moderate the conversation. This event is part of Central Square Theater’s Central Conversations series and the final History Café of the Society’s 2019 “How Does Cambridge Engage?” programming.
This event will be held during the Nora Theatre Company’s production of The Crucible, framed and inspired by the #metoo movement.
Eryn Johnson is the executive director of the Community Art Center and helped create the Youth Development in the Arts Youth Work Training curriculum.
Vincent Siders is an award-winning actor, director, producer, and educator. He serves as the Lead Instructor and Director of the Ambassadors of Youth Underground at Central Square Theater.
David Fichter is an internally-recognized muralist, and his art can be found throughout Cambridge. Depicted here is a detail of his 1994 mural “The Potluck,” located in Central Square.
Dr. Martin Blatt is director of the Public History Program at Northeastern University. He has an advocate of the arts and a longtime supporter of the Central Square Theater.
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Indebted: How Families Make College Work at Any Cost and The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students
Monday, September 23
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes authors and professors CAITLIN ZALOOM and ANTHONY ABRAHAM JACK for a discussion of their latest books, Indebted: How Families Make College Work at Any Cost and The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students.
About Indebted
The struggle to pay for college is one of the defining features of middle-class life in America today. At kitchen tables all across the country, parents agonize over whether to burden their children with loans or to sacrifice their own financial security by taking out a second mortgage or draining their retirement savings. Indebted takes readers into the homes of middle-class families throughout the nation to reveal the hidden consequences of student debt and the ways that financing college has transformed family life.
Caitlin Zaloom gained the confidence of numerous parents and their college-age children, who talked candidly with her about stressful and intensely personal financial matters that are usually kept private. In this remarkable book, Zaloom describes the profound moral conflicts for parents as they try to honor what they see as their highest parental duty―providing their children with opportunity―and shows how parents and students alike are forced to take on enormous debts and gamble on an investment that might not pay off. What emerges is a troubling portrait of an American middle class fettered by the "student finance complex"―the bewildering labyrinth of government-sponsored institutions, profit-seeking firms, and university offices that collect information on household earnings and assets, assess family needs, and decide who is eligible for aid and who is not.
Superbly written and unflinchingly honest, Indebted breaks through the culture of silence surrounding the student debt crisis, revealing the unspoken costs of sending our kids to college.
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Tuesday, September 24 - Monday, September 30
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Climate Preparedness Week - September 24-30
Events will be held in Cambridge and other communities throughout Massachusetts. City sponsored events are to be announced, but anyone can organize an event and have it be part of Climate Preparedness Week. The initiative is led by Communities Responding to Extreme Weather (CREW).
More information at https://www.climatecrew.org/prep_week
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Tuesday, September 24
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In Brookline, Climate is Everybody's Business
Tuesday, September 24
8:00 AM – 10:30 AM EDT
Brookline Town Hall, Room 103, 333 Washington Street, Brookline
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/in-brookline-climate-is-everybodys-business-registration-62511897769
Learn ways to green your organization and celebrate your success. Open to all Brookline businesses, non-profits, and faith organizations.
Are you unable to attend the workshop but interested in participating in the pilot? If so, you can participate by completing the self-assessment of your organizational or business practices. Sign up to receive a custom link to the self-assessment when it becomes available after September 24th: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/N3RJTBV
This workshop is a part of Brookline's new "Climate is Everybody's Business" pilot program for business owners, non-profits and faith organizations to green their everyday practices with a focus on energy. Come to this free event to learn about practical solutions to reduce your organizations' climate impact and support Brookline's ambitious sustainability plans. In addition to other helpful information, the workshop will feature stories and testimonials from local business owners with specific steps they’ve taken to reduce their climate impact and the local resources to replicate their success.
The workshop is part of a larger pilot program designed to engage and recognize businesses for their role in Brookline's transition to carbon neutrality by 2050.
Participants will be part of an initial cohort of local business and nonprofit leaders who will conduct a self-assessment of their everyday sustainability practices and receive public recognition for these efforts. This new recognition program will celebrate organizations in Brookline that have taken steps to green their operational practices in terms of energy, waste, climate and air quality.
Register to attend the workshop on Tuesday, September 24th from 8-10:30 am in room 103 of the Brookline Town Hall. From 8:00-8:30 will be registration and coffee, and program starts at 8:30.
More information is available under the "Go Green" tab on the Brookline Chamber of Commerce website http://gogreen.brooklinechamber.com
Please tell other Brookline business owners and nonprofit leaders about this important new program.
Questions? Please contact gogreen@brooklinechamber.com
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IxDA Boston & Creative Mornings Boston | Emotionally Intelligent Design
Tuesday, September 24
8:30 AM – 10:30 AM EDT
General Assembly Boston, 125 Summer Street, Boston
IxDA Boston is teaming with Creative Mornings Boston, General Assembly and HireMinds to celebrate the first World Interaction Design Day (IxDD) with the Greater Boston design community. On the morning of September 24, we will host Pamela Pavliscak, author of "Emotionally Intelligent Design: Rethinking How We Create Products." Pamela is an expert on our emotional relationship with tech, and her work brings together empathy research, affective computing, and expressive interfaces to make technology more human.
Come hear a thought leader speak to an interaction designer's mandate in the real world, make new connections (and deepen old connections) in the local design community, or meet local recruiters and learn more about current opportunities in the area... whatever the reason, we hope to see you there!
About World Interaction Design Day
September 24, 2019 is World Interaction Design Day. Join us in Boston, where we will come together as part of a united global design community to celebrate and explore how interaction design improves the human condition. Our aim is to have a positive, long-lasting impact by facilitating activities that support dialogue and outcomes. The theme for our first year is Trust and Responsibility.
About Our Speaker
Pamela Pavliscak (pav-li-shock) guides organizations toward emotionally intelligent futures as founder of Change Sciences. Part ethnography, part psychology, part data science, her approach translates future vision into tangible everyday possibilities.
She specializes in emotionally intelligent design and emotion-sensing artificial intelligence. Her research has been featured on CBC's Spark, Salon, and Quartz. Her book, Emotionally Intelligent Design, focuses on how to design a future that has as much EQ as it does IQ.
Pamela is a TEDx speaker and has spoken at SxSW , TNW, Web Summit, Google Creative Labs, among many others. She teaches at the Pratt Institute School of Information in NYC and has lectured at the Stanford d.School, ASU’s Center for Science and the Imagination, University of Washington, and Parsons. She serves on an international committee to develop IEEE standard 7000 for ethically aligned AI.
About Our Sponsors
General Assembly is a pioneer in education and career transformation, specializing in today’s most in-demand skills. The leading source for training, staffing, and career transitions, we foster a flourishing community of professionals pursuing careers they love.
HireMinds is the leading search firm in the Boston area focused on Marketing/MarTech, Creative, Accounting/Finance, and Science recruiting.
About Donations
IxDA Boston is a non-profit organization supported in part by member / attendee donations. We do not charge membership fees. If you enjoy or are inspired by our events, please contribute to our ability to continue delivering great interaction and UX programming to the Boston design community by including an optional donation as part of your ticket registration!
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MIT Quest Workshop on Collective Intelligence
Tuesday, September 24
9:00am to 5:00pm
MIT, Building 46, Singleton Auditorium and Atrium, 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Almost everything humans have achieved has been done by groups of people working together. Financial markets operate on this principle of collective intelligence to set prices for stocks, as do Internet search engines to answer questions asked by thousands before. Computers can make groups even smarter, but how should humans and machines interact? This workshop will explore the ways that people and machines, working separately and together, can leverage their relative strengths, resolve conflict and create value for society.
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URGENT Action to Get Big Money Out of Politics
Tuesday, September 24
11:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Massachusetts State House, Gardner Auditorium, 24 Beacon Street, Boston
A committee hearing has been scheduled for the We The People Act S.2163/H.3208 which would bring about the 28th Amendment to the US Constitution on Campaign Finance Reform. We need YOUR help to push the legislation forward by packing the Gardner Auditorium with friends and family from all over the Commonwealth. Stand with us to show our state legislators that overturning Citizens United and restoring democracy to we the people is the issue we must fix first! Come whenever you can. Carpooling is available.
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Speaker Series: Suraj Yengde
Tuesday, September 24
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Harvard, Wexner 434AB, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Suraj Yengde is an award-winning scholar and activist from India. Suraj is the author of Caste Matters, and a postdoctoral fellow for the Institutional Anti-racism and Accountability Initiative at the Shorenstein Center. Suraj is India’s first Dalit Ph.D. holder from an African university (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg) in the nation’s history, and a published author in the field of Caste, Race, Ethnicity studies, and inter-regional labor migration in the global south. Suraj also holds a research associate position with the department of African and African American Studies, and a Non-resident fellow at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. Currently, he is involved in developing a critical theory of Dalit and Black Studies.
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A New Jim Code? ON RACE, CARCERAL TECHNOSCIENCE, AND LIBERATORY IMAGINATION IN EVERYDAY LIFE JUSTICE, EQUITY, & INCLUSION
Tuesday, September 24
12:00 PM - 1:15 PM ET
Harvard, Wasserstein Hall, Milstein East C (Room 2036, Second Floor), 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdTapqp1BK0-tJi7d8Aqh_7CnD2RvE_EBX_SZa0DcHwRWXLkg/viewform
Ruha Benjamin and Jasmine McNealy
From everyday apps to complex algorithms, technology has the potential to hide, speed, and even deepen discrimination, while appearing neutral and even benevolent when compared to racist practices of a previous era. In this talk, Ruha Benjamin presents the concept of the “New Jim Code" to explore a range of discriminatory designs that encode inequity: by explicitly amplifying racial hierarchies, by ignoring but thereby replicating social divisions, or by aiming to fix racial bias but ultimately doing quite the opposite. Ruha will also consider how race itself is a kind of tool designed to stratify and sanctify social injustice and discuss how technology is and can be used toward liberatory ends. This presentation delves into the world of biased bots, altruistic algorithms, and their many entanglements, and provides conceptual tools to decode tech promises with sociologically informed skepticism. In doing so, it challenges the audience to question not only the technologies we are sold, but also the ones we manufacture ourselves.
Event will be live webcast here at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/new-jim-code at 12:00PM on event date.
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Is the Cold War Strategic Triangle Reviving? Sino-Russian Relations in the Trump Era
Tuesday, September 24
12:00 pm to 1:30 pm on , 2019
BU, 121 Bay State Road, 1st floor seminar room, Boston
The BU Center for the Study of Asia presents "Is the Cold War Strategic Triangle Reviving? Sino-Russian Relations in the Trump Era "
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IDG Development Seminars: Ciro Biderman
Tuesday, September 24
12:30pm to 2:00pm
MIT, Building 9-450, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
The International Development Group welcomes Ciro Biderman, professor of graduation and post-graduation courses in public administration and economics at the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV), for an IDG Development Seminar.
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Biology Colloquium Series: The Coming of Age of De Novo Protein Design
Tuesday, September 24
4:00pm to 5:00pm
MIT, Building 32-123, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Dr. David Baker, University of Washington
The Biology Colloquium is a weekly seminar held throughout the academic year, featuring distinguished speakers in many areas of the biological sciences, from universities and institutions worldwide. More information on speakers, their affiliations, and titles of their talks will be added as available. The Colloquium takes place at the Stata Center's Kirsch Auditorium, 32-123, at 4:00PM on most Tuesdays during the school year. Contact: Linda Earle lkn@mit.edu
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MMEC Seminar - Bioinspired Design of Structural and Thermal Interface Materials
Tuesday, September 24
4:00pm to 5:00pm
MIT, Building 3-370, 33 Massachusetts Avenue (Rear), Cambridge
Professor Nima Rahbar, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
This talk focuses on the fundamental ideas arising from understanding the mechanisms behind the superior mechanical and thermal properties of biological materials through specific examples of nacre, bamboo, cartilage, and lipid bilayers. The mechanical behavior and toughening mechanisms of nacre-inspired multilayered materials are explored. In nacre’s structure, the organic matrix, pillars and the roughness of the aragonite platelets play important roles in its overall mechanical performance. A micromechanical model for multilayered biological materials is proposed to simulate their mechanical deformation and toughening mechanisms. The modeling results are in excellent agreement with the available experimental data for abalone nacre. The highly nonlinear behavior of the proposed multilayered material is the result of distributed deformation in the nacre-like structure due to the existence of nano-asperities and nano-pillars with near theoretical strength. The application of this framework will be discussed for development of a new class of ductile cementitious fire resisting material, and a self-healing enzymatic concrete. Bamboo, a fast-growing grass, has higher strength-to-weight ratios than steel and concrete. The unique properties of bamboo come from the natural composite structure of fibers that comprises mainly cellulose nanofibrils in a matrix of intertwined hemicellulose and lignin called lignin-carbohydrate complex (LCC). Here we have experimentally and numerically studied mechanical and fracture properties of bamboo at multiple scale. We have utilized atomistic simulations to investigate the mechanical properties and mechanisms of the interactions of these materials in the structure of bamboo fibers. It is shown that a control hemicellulose model has better thermodynamic and mechanical properties than lignin while lignin exhibits greater tendency to adhere to cellulose nanofibril. Therefore, the role of hemicellulose found to be enhancing the mechanical properties while lignin provides the strength of bamboo fibers. Lastly, given the amphiphilic nature and chemical structure, phospholipids exhibit a strong thermotropic and lyotropic phase behavior in an aqueous environment. We performed non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations for a range of different temperature gradients. The results show that the thermal properties of the DPPC bilayer are highly dependent on the temperature gradient. Higher temperature gradients cause an increase in the thermal conductivity of the DPPC lipid bilayer. We also found that the thermal conductivity of DPPC is lowest at the transition temperature whereby one lipid leaflet is in the gel phase and the other is in the liquid crystalline phase. These results provide significant new insights into developing new thermal insulation for engineering applications.
Bio
Dr. Rahbar received his PhD in Mechanics, Materials and Structures in Department of Civil Engineering at Princeton University. He joined WPI in August 2012 as an Assistant Professor after 4 years in UMass Dartmouth. His research interests are in the area of bioinspired design of materials with an emphasis on mechanical and thermal properties. Dr. Rahbar has won several awards including NSF CAREER award in 2012, TMS Young Leader’s award in 2013, Air Force Summer Faculty Fellowship Award in 2013, Consecutive ASCE 2015 and 2016 Outstanding Reviewer, and 2018 Sigma Xi Outstanding Junior Faculty Research Award. He is currently a visiting associate professor at MIT CEE department.
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Thinking Like a Magician
WHEN Tuesday, Sep. 24, 2019, 4:15 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Knafel Center, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Comedy, Humanities, Lecture, Special Events, Theater
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
SPEAKER(S) Joshua Jay, Magician and author
COST Free
CONTACT INFO events@radcliffe.harvard.edu
DETAILS In this performance-based lecture, the globe-trotting magician Joshua Jay will pull back the curtain on the way magicians think. He will explore how magicians achieve the seemingly impossible and how people can apply the same strategies to their own lives and work. Register online.
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Berkman Klein & Friends Open House Showcase
WHEN Tuesday, Sep. 24, 2019, 5 – 7 p.m.
WHERE HLS Wasserstein Hall Milstein East ABC, Room 2036, second floor, 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Exhibitions, Health Sciences, Information Technology, Law, Research study, Special Events, Support/Social
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society
CONTACT INFO events@cyber.harvard.edu
DETAILS Please join us for our Fall 2019 Open House and Reception to learn about the Berkman Klein Center, our amazing community and our Harvard friends. Berkman Klein faculty, fellows, and staff look forward to meeting you!
People from all disciplines, universities, organizations, and backgrounds are encouraged to attend the Open House. We hope to see you there!
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Fulbright University Vietnam: Sustainability in New Campus Design
Tuesday, September 24
Time: 5:30pm – 7:30pm
38 Sidney Street, Suite 180, Cambridge
Cost: $37.79
Carrying forward the legacy of its namesake, Senator J. William Fulbright, a champion of international educational exchange, Fulbright University Vietnam (FUV) is the country’s first independent, non-profit institution of higher education. The landmark institution aspires to serve Vietnamese society through innovative teaching programs and impactful research aimed at supporting Vietnam’s continued development, while addressing the grand challenges facing Vietnam and the world. The university, representing a collaboration between the United States government and the government of Vietnam, was officially announced in 2016 by President Obama during his visit to Ho Chi Minh City.
Reflecting its cultural and educational mandate, FUV aims to set a precedent in sustainable and resilient planning for the next generation of Vietnamese and global leaders. We will look at a number of issues that shaped this project, including how critical early decision-making and commitments impact opportunities for sustainable development throughout its design and construction life cycle; how FUV’s unique approach to environmental design is integrated with the cultural and contextual experience of the campus to create a forward-thinking design firmly rooted in its place; and the role of the university in acknowledging and addressing local environmental challenges while also advancing regional and global standards of sustainable development.
Refreshments will be served
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I'm Taking a Job in Charlotte: How the High Cost of Housing is Hurting Massachusetts Businesses
Tuesday, September 24
5:30 PM – 8:00 PM EDT
WBUR CitySpace, 890 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
Cost: $0 – $75
FLASH SALE FOR TICKETS ($20) NOW THROUGH THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19thTickets:
Free for members
$20 for non-members now through September 19th
$75 for non-members after September 19th
Pricey housing has increasingly become a challenge for businesses in our region looking to attract and retain top talent, and it is holding our economy back as much needed workers abandon greater Boston for more affordable regions of the country. Join us for an interactive discussion with city and state officials, developers and businesses on the future of affordable housing in the region. What role do they each play in tackling the crisis? What solutions are on the table? How does Massachusetts keep up with other states to produce and preserve housing that is accessible, inclusive and supportive of economic growth?
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Tales from the Trail
WHEN Tuesday, Sep. 24, 2019, 6 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Kennedy School, JFK Jr. Forum, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Institute of Politics
SPEAKER(S) Chelsea Janes, Washington Post
Musadiq Bidar, CBS News
Marianna Sotomayor, NBC News
Moderator: Dan Balz, IOP Senior Fellow and Washington Post correspondent
COST Free
CONTACT INFO RSVP_IOP@hks.harvard.edu
DETAILS Tales from the Trails: A first in the IOP’s ongoing Election 2020 series featuring embedded reporters on the campaign trail with presidential candidates. This inaugural event features Washington Post’s Chelsea Janes, CBS News’ Musadiq Bidar, and NBC News’ Marianna Sotomayor. The conversation will be moderated by IOP Senior Fellow and Washington Post correspondent Dan Balz.
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What Psychedelics Teach Us About Spirituality
Tuesday, September 24
6:00pm
Northeastern, East Village, 17th floor, 291 St Botolph Street, Boston
Author Michael Pollan - Lecture and Booking Signing
In this 2019 Morton E. Ruderman Memorial Lecture, New York Times bestselling author, Michael Pollan talks about his latest book, "How to Change your Mind - What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression and Transcendence." His first-person account of what pyschedelics taught him about his mind, the mind and the nature of spiritual experience.
Book signing follows the lecture at 7:30.
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The Fears Have Gone Away: Exploring the Roots of Insurgent Citizenship in India’s Bhil Heartland
WHEN Tuesday, Sep. 24, 2019, 6 – 7:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CGIS South, S153, Harvard University, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute
SPEAKER(S) Alf Nilsen, Professor of Sociology at the University of Pretoria
COST Free
CONTACT INFO Selmon Rafey
DETAILS In India, subaltern groups must resort to the universalizing vocabulary of citizenship in order to stake claims for redistribution and recognition. But on what basis do they do this — especially under severe coercion? Alf Nilsen, Professor of Sociology at the University of Pretoria, will explore this question by investigating movement patterns in the Bhil heartland of western India, where Adivasi communities have organized and mobilized against the tyranny of the local state.
LINK The Fears Have Gone Away: Exploring the Roots of Insurgent Citizenship in India’s Bhil Heartland
The Fears Have Gone Away: Exploring the Roots of Insurgent Citizenship in India’s Bhil Heartland
WHEN Tuesday, Sep. 24, 2019, 6 – 7:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CGIS South, S153, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute
SPEAKER(S) Alf Nilsen, Professor of Sociology at the University of Pretoria
COST Free
CONTACT INFO Selmon Rafey srafey@fas.harvard.edu
DETAILS In India, subaltern groups must resort to the universalizing vocabulary of citizenship in order to stake claims for redistribution and recognition. But on what basis do they do this — especially under severe coercion? Alf Nilsen, Professor of Sociology at the University of Pretoria, will explore this question by investigating movement patterns in the Bhil heartland of western India, where Adivasi communities have organized and mobilized against the tyranny of the local state.
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A Golden Civilization and The Map of Mindfulness
Tuesday, September 24
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM EDT
Harvard Coop, 1400 Mass Avenue, Cambridge
George Kinder invites readers to imagine a thousand generations have passed and humanity has at last accomplished a Golden Civilization. What does it look like? Who are we there? Of all our systems and structures currently in place which of them got us there? And which of them were irretrievably heading in the wrong direction? He challenges readers to immediately abandon habits, structures, and systems that won’t take us to a Golden Civilization and adopt those that will.
George Kinder, international thought leader, has authored three books on money: The Seven Stages of Money Maturity, Lighting the Torch, and Life Planning for You. He is known as the father of the Life Planning movement. Winner of numerous awards, as founder and CEO of the Kinder Institute of Life Planning he has revolutionized client-centered financial advice with in-depth trainings of thousands of advisers from thirty countries across six continents. A mindfulness teacher, Kinder also leads weekly meditation classes and retreats around the world and wrote Transforming Suffering into Wisdom: Mindfulness and The Art of Inner Listening. Kinder is also a published poet and photographer. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife and daughters, and spends several months each year in London and Maui.
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Climate Change in the Local Wild
Tuesday, September 24
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
Boston Public Library in Copley Square, 700 Boylston Street, Boston
What can Henry David Thoreau tell us about how climate change is affecting local plants and animals today?
For the past 15 years, Professor Richard Primack and his team have been using Thoreau’s 1850s records and other Massachusetts data sources to document the increasingly early flowering and leafing out times of plants, variable responses of migratory birds, and changes in plant abundance caused by a warming climate. Learn about Professor Primack's research and the ways in which climate change is impacting the nonhuman beings with whom we share this region.
This event is presented in association with Climate Preparedness Week 2019, an initiative of CREW (Communities Responding to Extreme Weather).
Richard Primack is a Professor of Biology at Boston University with a specialization in plant ecology, conservation biology, tropical rain forest ecology, and climate change biology. He is the author of two widely used conservation biology textbooks, was for nine years the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Biological Conservation, and has served as the President of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation. His research has appeared in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, National Geographic, and other publications, and he is often interviewed on National Public Radio. Primack also frequently gives talks and writes for the general public on issues of climate change and ecology, most recently the popular book Walden Warming: Climate Change Comes to Thoreau’s Woods.
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PKG Community Conversations: Tech for Social Good
Tuesday, September 24
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EDT
MIT Stata Center, 32 Vassar Street, R&D Commons (4th floor), Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/pkg-community-conversations-tech-for-social-good-tickets-65828345353
Join the conversation! Meet local organizations exploring ways that computational tech (AI, machine learning, data science, etc) can be used for the social good and restricting tech’s potential for contributing to inequality and injustice.
Community-focused organizations can sign-up for 90-second "pitches" to share their goals and opportunities. Pitching is optional but is a great way to quickly share your message or needs with everyone in the room. Presenters may send one slide in advance to serve as a visual aid.
Participants can take part in a table discussion about transparency and accountability at MIT with the Movement for Anti-Oppressive Computing Practices.
Join us for good food and good conversations!
Agenda:
6:00 pm Mingle with other tech and community advocates
6:45 pm Community tech organizations and social ventures share 90-second overviews of their work and needs
End-of-pitches to 8:00pm Additional time to network
Generously sponsored by Arrow and presented by the MIT PKG Center and MIT Radius.
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DeepMind - Company Presentation
Tuesday, September 24
6:00pm to 8:00pm
MIT, Building 32-123, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
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A Global Ecology Journey: Prioritizing Earth-Centered Ethics
WHEN Tuesday, Sep. 24, 2019, 6:30 – 8 p.m.
WHERE The Arnold Arboretum, Hunnewell Building, 125 Arborway, Jamaica Plain
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Lecture, Sustainability
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Arnold Arboretum,
& CREW (Communities Responding to Extreme Weather)
SPEAKER(S) Douglas Zook, Global Ecologist, Science Educator, and Director of the Global Ecology Education Initiative based at UMass/Boston School for the Environment, and current Fulbright Scholar
COST FREE, registration requested
CONTACT INFO Pam Thompson
DETAILS The discipline of Global Ecology leads us to realize that a sustainable, viable Home for us and all other species can only be restored by living a new ethic that keeps biosphere health foremost in our minds, hearts, and actions. Professor Zook will introduce us to some of the courageous and science-based grassroots peoples in nations around the world who are practicing and even prioritizing an earth-centered ethic. Learn from these inspiring examples and begin to create and practice your own earth-ethics.
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Boston University Student-Faculty Forum: Learning from the Responses to The New York Times 1619 Project
Tuesday, September 24
6:30 pm to 8:00 pm
BU, 871 Commonwealth Avenue, Jacob Sleeper Auditorium, Boston
Join us for the first Boston University Student-Faculty Forum of the academic year! To kick-off the year, our esteemed faculty will discuss The New York Times' 1619 project, a major initiative marketing the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery, and reactions to it.
The panelists include:
Paula C. Austin, Assistant Professor of History and African American Studies, CAS
Michelle Johnson, Associate Professor of the Practice, Journalism, COM
Nina Silber, Professor of History and American and New England Studies, CAS Pizza and brownies will be served!
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Wicked Hot Boston
Tuesday, September 24
6:30 - 9:00 pm
Museum of Science, 1 Museum of Science Driveway, Boston
Extreme heat events, or heat waves, are on the rise in the US. This is intensified by the urban heat island effect, which makes cities warmer compared to non-urban environments. What are some ways that you can help reduce the urban heat island effect in your community?
In this program, you will learn about the health and social impacts of extreme heat, work with other participants to explore and recommend resilience strategies to keep our communities cool, and learn about how participating in community science can help inform scientists about which communities are the hottest.
Join us for a fun and interactive evening where you decide how communities around Boston should handle extreme heat!
Want to get involved in community science now? Go to www.SciStarter.org/NOAA to get started.
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The City-State of Boston
Tuesday, September 24
7:00pm
Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge
Yale professor Mark Peterson reads from his book The City-State of Boston: a groundbreaking history of early America that shows how Boston built and sustained an independent city-state in New England before being folded into the United States.
In the vaunted annals of America's founding, Boston has long been held up as an exemplary "city upon a hill" and the "cradle of liberty" for an independent United States. Wresting this iconic urban center from these misleading, tired clich's, The City-State of Boston highlights Boston's overlooked past as an autonomous city-state, and in doing so, offers a pathbreaking and brilliant new history of early America. Following Boston's development over three centuries, Mark Peterson discusses how this self-governing Atlantic trading center began as a refuge from Britain's Stuart monarchs and how--through its bargain with slavery and ratification of the Constitution--it would tragically lose integrity and autonomy as it became incorporated into the greater United States.
Drawing from vast archives, and featuring unfamiliar figures alongside well-known ones, such as John Winthrop, Cotton Mather, and John Adams, Peterson explores Boston's origins in sixteenth-century utopian ideals, its founding and expansion into the hinterland of New England, and the growth of its distinctive political economy, with ties to the West Indies and southern Europe. By the 1700s, Boston was at full strength, with wide Atlantic trading circuits and cultural ties, both within and beyond Britain's empire. After the cataclysmic Revolutionary War, "Bostoners" aimed to negotiate a relationship with the American confederation, but through the next century, the new United States unraveled Boston's regional reign. The fateful decision to ratify the Constitution undercut its power, as Southern planters and slave owners dominated national politics and corroded the city-state's vision of a common good for all.
Peeling away the layers of myth surrounding a revered city, The City-State of Boston offers a startlingly fresh understanding of America's history.
Mark Peterson is the Edmund S. Morgan Professor of History at Yale University. He is the author of The Price of Redemption: The Spiritual Economy of Puritan New England.
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Wednesday, September 25 - Friday, September 27
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Introduction to Movement Strategy
Wednesday, September 25 - Friday, September 27
Beacon Hill Friends House, 6-8 Chestnut Street, Boston
with the Ayni Institute (https://ayni.institute/about/) whose influential Momentum Training has helped launch nationwide grassroots movements like Cosecha, Sunrise
Movement, and IfNotNow. We're delighted that Ayni has chosen the Friends
House as the location for their next "Intro to Movement Strategy"
training!
Advance registration is required; see event page for details and pricing at https://www.facebook.com/events/502888360465526/
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Wednesday, September 25
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What if North Korea Attacked? Japanese, South Korean, and U.S. Public Opinion on the Nuclear Umbrella
WHEN Wednesday, Sep. 25, 2019, 10 – 11:30 a.m.
WHERE Harvard, Fainsod Room, Littauer 324, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Project on Managing the Atom, Belfer Center for Science & International Affairs
SPEAKER(S) Stephen Herzog, Stanton Nuclear Security Predoctoral Fellow with the Project on Managing the Atom and International Security Program
CONTACT INFO Jacob Carozza
617-495-4219
DETAILS As U.S.-North Korean tensions drive nuclear dangers to crisis levels, how robust is public support for the U.S. nuclear umbrella? Experts often forget that extended deterrence is an elite-driven phenomenon. Polls indicate many populations protected by the umbrella either oppose nuclear weapons or desire their own arsenals. In the age of "America first," polls also suggest that the U.S. public is skeptical of taking on risks to defend Washington's closest partners. Perception gaps among the U.S. and allied populations about the desirability of retaliatory actions could complicate government coordination in a nuclear crisis.
To evaluate public support for the nuclear umbrella, Herzog — along with study co-authors David M. Allison of Yale University and Jiyoung Ko of Bates College—developed a crisis simulation survey experiment discussing hypothetical North Korean attacks on U.S. allies. Nationally representative samples (n=6,623) of the Japanese, South Korean, and U.S. populations participated in the exercise. At this seminar, Herzog will discuss the survey results and relevant lessons for alliance politics and extended deterrence.
Stephen Herzog is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at Yale University and a Stanton Nuclear Security Predoctoral Fellow with the International Security Program/Project on Managing the Atom. He focuses on nuclear arms control, deterrence, and proliferation. His research draws on archival methods, elite interviewing, and survey experiments. Stephen also holds fellowships with the Yale Project on Japan's Politics and Diplomacy and the Pacific Forum of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
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BU Annual Sustainability Festival
Wednesday, September 25
11:00am – 2:00pm
BU, Medical Campus, Talbot Green, 45 Stoughton Street, Boston
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Disruptive Technologies for Resilient and Sustainable Cities
WHEN Wednesday, Sep. 25, 2019, 12 – 1:15 p.m.
WHERE Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Room 124, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Sustainability
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Master in Design Engineering (MDE) at Harvard
SPEAKER(S) Sameh Wahba, Global Director of the Urban, Disaster Risk Management, Resilience and Land Global Practice
COST Free
DETAILS Disruptive technologies have made access to data easier, cheaper, and faster than ever before. This has enabled policymakers and city leaders to better plan and deliver services, enhance municipal revenues, and strengthen their city resilience. Sameh Wahba shares examples of the World Bank’s experience in leveraging disruptive technologies to enable the development of livable, resilient, and sustainable cities, noting the enabling role technology and the critical importance of active citizen participation, stakeholder engagement, and capacity building.
LINK https://mde.harvard.edu/sameh-wahba-“disruptive-technologies-resilient-and-sustainable-cities
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Great expectations or nothing to lose? Socio-economic correlates of joining the Islamic State
Wednesday, September 25
12:00-1:30pm
MIT, Building E40-496 (Pye Room), 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Steffen Hertog, London School of Economics and Political Science
Drawing on a new dataset of 4000 foreign fighters who joined the Islamic State from 2012 to 2014, this paper investigates the socio-economic profiles of international IS volunteers by comparing them with relevant populations in their countries of origin. Confirming previous research about Islamist radicals, we find that IS foreign fighters are more educated than their peers, albeit with considerable variation across countries. For a sub-set of countries, we use data on IS members’ education, professional background, and the relationship between the two, to assess two socio-economic hypotheses of radicalization: low opportunity costs and relative deprivation, two concepts that researchers have struggled to empirically distinguish to date. We find qualified support for relative deprivation.
Bio
Steffen Hertog is an associate professor of comparative politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research interests include Gulf politics, Middle East political economy, political violence and radicalization and he has published in journals such as World Politics, Review of International Political Economy, Comparative Studies in Society and History, European Journal of Sociology and International Journal of Middle East Studies. His book about Saudi state-building, “Princes, Brokers and Bureaucrats: Oil and State in Saudi Arabia” was published by Cornell University Press in 2011. He is the co-author, with Diego Gambetta, of “Engineers of Jihad: the Curious Connection between Violent Extremism and Education” (with Princeton University Press 2016).
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EPP Seminar: Frans Evers - Negotiating a Energy Transition in the Netherlands
Wednesday, September 25
12:30pm to 2:00pm
MIT, Building 9-450, 105 Massachusetts Avenie, Cambridge
DUSP's Environmental Policy and Planning group will host a seminar with guest speaker Frans Evers who will discuss the regional efforts in the Netherlands to meet ambitious national decarbonization goals by 2030 and 2050. Frans Evers is a experienced public policy mediator. He is the Former Associate Director-General of the Dutch Ministry of the Environment and the Chairman of the Dutch Environmental Impact Assessment Committee, the Chairman of the National Contact Point for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OCED), and the Chair of the ILG Committee in Amstel, Gooi, and Vechstreek. He will explore the context, the decision making process, and foster a discussion about their experiences guiding the division making process using principles of a mutual gains approach and how it might be applicable to other attempts to empower policy that fosters sustainability and economic growth.
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Discussion on banning natural (fracked) gas infrastructure in Cambridge
Wednesday, Sept 25
3pm
Cambridge City Hall, Sullivan Chamber, 795 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Health & Environment Committee Committee Meeting
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Rising Temperatures, Rising Costs: The Increasing Global Energy Needs that Come with a Changing Climate
Wednesday, September 25
3:00 - 4:30 pm
BU, Pardee Center, 67 Bay State Road, Boston
By mid-century, climate change will significantly increase the demand for energy, driven in large part by electricity needed for cooling. According to a comprehensive new study by researchers from Boston University, the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), and the Ca' Foscari University of Venice published in Nature Communications, energy demand by 2050 will increase by 11-27 percent in a modest warming scenario, and 25-58 percent in a high warming scenario. These findings were the result of a global analysis using temperature projections from 21 climate models and population and economy projections for five socioeconomic scenarios to calculate changes in demand for three fuels and in four economic sectors.
Join the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future and the Institute for Sustainable Energy (ISE) for a seminar with study co-author and Pardee Center Faculty Research Fellow Prof. Ian Sue Wing, where he will present the study's methodology, findings, and implications for the future. He will be joined by ISE Associate Director Prof. Cutler Cleveland as a discussant. The seminar will take place on . This event is free and open to the public.
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LifeHub AgConnect: When The Well Runs Dry
Wednesday, September 25
4:00 PM – 6:00 PM EDT
LifeHub Boston, 610 Main Street, Entrance near 10 Portland Street, Cambridge
AgConnect is back in session for the fall semester with our Sustainability Series! This four-event community gathering explores innovations in sustainable farming practices with our friends at J-WAFS at MIT.
This time, we are going to focus on water sustainability in agriculture. Join us for our first talk on September 25th, and connect with other bright minds in Boston agriculture!
We will need your full name to prepare name tags.
*Please remember to take a photo ID to enter the building.
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Erion Veliaj | Redesigning for the People
Wednesday, September 25
5:00pm to 7:00pm
MIT, Building 7-429, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Redesigning for the People: Tirana Transformed
Characterized by a continuous urban sprawl in the last three decades and the legacies of an isolated past, Tirana, now the capital of an EU candidate country, witnessed in the last years the vital need to transform and first and foremost provide for public spaces where citizens feel that they belong to. By far, Tirana has undergone an urban transformation marked primarily by the vision of giving the city back to its citizens by opening up public spaces, increasing green areas and adapting infrastructures to child-friendly designs. Coping with a limited budget and the challenges of citizens’ distrust, Tirana’s Mayor, Erion Veliaj, newly re-elected for a second term, will talk about the steps of Tirana’s transformation to a better, greener and more humane city.
Erion Veliaj was re-elected as Mayor of Tirana in June 2019, after being firstly elected as the 42nd Mayor of Tirana in June 2015. His first term in office is marked by an urban transformation of the city, oriented towards the implementation of child-friendly policies as part of his vision of giving the city back to the citizens.
Prior to his tenure, Veliaj served as a Member of Parliament of Albania and Minister of Social Welfare and Youth from 2013 through 2015. Before joining the ranks of the Socialist Party of Albania in 2011, Veliaj had a long experience as the leader and founder of the youth movement “MJAFT”, a civic organization which gained huge popularity for inspiring peaceful protest since its creation in 2003.
Veliaj has also worked with several international humanitarian organizations in the Americas, Eastern Africa and Kosovo.
Veliaj holds a Master’s degree in European Integration from the University of Sussex and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the Grand Valley State University.
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Mathematics for Human Flourishing
Wednesday, September 25
5:30pm
Harvard Science Center, Lecture Hall D, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Francis Su, Harvey Mudd College
How is math tied to what it means to be human? Why does the practice of mathematics often fall short of our ideals and hopes? Francis Su will describe how math helps people flourish, regardless of what they do with their lives or careers, because it meets basic human desires and builds virtues that contribute to a life well-lived. And thus math belongs to everyone. Su will also share what he's learned from a prison inmate who has helped him re-think what it means to do math well.
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Community Meeting and Fall Food Potluck
Wednesday, September 25
5:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Old South Church in Boston, 645 Boylston Street, Boston
Sunrise Boston's community team plans fun events for members to get to know each other outside of actions and meetings. If you want to learn more about the team and how you can get involved, come to our first meeting!
We will be meeting in the Guild Room (4th Floor) of the Old South Church in Copley Square. The building is wheelchair-accessible.
Stick around afterwards for our fall food potluck, an event planned by the community team! The potluck will start at 6:30 in the same room as the meeting.
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The Politics of Difference: Race, Technology, and Inclusion
WHEN Wednesday, Sep. 25, 2019, 6 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Kennedy School, JFK Jr. Forum, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Institute of Politics
SPEAKER(S) Ruha Benjamin
Khalil Gibran Muhammad
Latoya Peterson
Moderator: Joan Donovan
COST Free
CONTACT INFO RSVP_IOP@hks.harvard.edu
DETAILS This panel brings together Ruha Benjamin, Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Latoya Peterson and moderator Joan Donovan for a discussion on race, technology, media, and policy to converse on a range of topics from the recent public upheavals over facial recognition technology, increasing integration into police and state surveillance tools, and the manipulation of social media to gain a political advantage.
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Morality & Altruism
Wednesday, September 25
6:00PM – 7:30PM
WBUR CitySpace, 890 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
Cost: $30
SPEAKERS
Max Krasnow, EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGIST
Max Krasnow is an Associate Professor in the Psychology Department and the director of the Evolutionary Psychology Lab at Harvard University. He studies the design of the cognitive mechanisms that underlie human sociality and how they evolved, using a combination of analytic modeling techniques and standard behavioral experiments to triangulate on answers to these questions. He is interested in advancing the basic science understanding of human social nature, and also in better characterizing the ‘levers’ on that nature that can help tailor public policy to produce better effects.
Bethany Burum, SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGIST
Bethany Burum is a social and evolutionary psychologist interested in how hidden incentives shape our minds and behavior. She received her Ph.D. in Psychology from Harvard University, where she is now a post-doctoral researcher and lecturer. Her research integrates evolutionary game theory with laboratory experiments to study the unconscious incentives that shape our preferences, beliefs, and ideologies, including our sense of morality, justice, beauty, and altruism. Her courses on these topics include: game theory and social behavior, the origins of our political and moral ideologies, and how hidden incentives explain art and beauty.
PERFORMANCE BY Melissa Ferrick, MUSICIAN
Melissa is a Professor of the Practice at Northeastern University and holds an Ed.M. from Harvard University. She has released seventeen albums over the last twenty-five years and has won numerous awards for songwriting, production, and performance. Regarded in the industry and by her peers as one of the most prolific artists in the business, Melissa still tours regularly, playing throughout North America. She has shared the stage with Morrissey, Weezer, Bob Dylan, Ani DiFranco, k.d. Lang, Suzanne Vega, and Shawn Colvin among many others.
Each salon features an artistic performance, two distinguished speakers, and a Q&A that provides audience members an opportunity to speak directly with some of the region’s brightest innovators and creative minds.
WBUR CitySpace
WBUR CitySpace is the new state-of-the-art multimedia venue for interviews, conversations, and performances located at 890 Commonwealth Avenue. It brings the stories you hear every day from WBUR and NPR to life. CitySpace is the region’s premier destination to be inspired, entertained, and educated.
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Great Decisions: The Rise of Populism in Europe
Wednesday, September 25, 2019 Add to Calendar
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
Boston Central Library in Copley Square, 700 Boylston Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/great-decisions-the-rise-of-populism-in-europe-tickets-67778069029
Mass migration, and the problems associated with it, have directly abetted the rise of populist parties in Europe. Opposition to immigration was the prime driver of support for Brexit, it brought a far-right party to the German Bundestag for the first time since the 1950s, and propelled Marine Le Pen to win a third of the vote in the French presidential election. In addition to calling for stronger borders, however, these parties are invariably illiberal, anti-American, anti-NATO and pro-Kremlin, making their rise a matter of serious concern for the national security interests of the United States.
Vivien A. Schmidt is Jean Monnet Professor of European Integration, Professor of International Relations in the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies and Professor of Political Scienceat Boston University, as well as Founding Director of BU’s Center for the Study of Europe. She received her B.A. from Bryn Mawr College and her Masters and PhD from the University of Chicago. Schmidt’s research focuses on European political economy, institutions, democracy, and political theory—in particular on the importance of ideas and discourse in political analysis (discursive institutionalism).
Schmidt is a Visiting Professor at LUISS Guido Carli University in Rome and at the Copenhagen Business School. She has also been a visiting professor or visiting scholar at the Free University of Berlin, the Free University of Brussels, Sciences Po in Paris, the European University Institute, and Oxford University, among others. She is past head of the European Union Studies Association (EUSA) and sits on a number of advisory boards, including the Wissenschaft Zentrum Berlin, the Vienna Institute for Peace, the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (Brussels), and the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute. She has published a dozen books, over 200 scholarly journal articles or chapters in books, and numerous policy briefs and comments, most recently on the Eurozone crisis. Her current work, supported by a Guggenheim fellowship, focuses on the ‘rhetoric of discontent,’ through a transatlantic investigation of the populist revolt against globalization and Europeanization.
THIS EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC, BUT REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. REFRESHMENTS WILL BE PROVIDED!
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TEDxCambridge Salon Series: Morality & Altruism
Wednesday, September 25
6:00PM – 7:30PM
WBUR CitySpace, 890 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
Each salon features an artistic performance, two distinguished speakers, and a Q&A that provides audience members an opportunity to speak directly with some of the region’s brightest innovators and creative minds.
Curious? Don’t miss your chance to attend these one-of-a-kind events. Each salon is limited to 250 guests. All seating is general admission.
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The World in a Shilling: Money and Political Economy in Early New England
Wednesday, September 25
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM EDT
Old State House, 206 Washington Street, Boston
Mark Peterson will examine the financial network that supported the New England colonies.
Upon arriving in North America, the Puritans created a new financial system to help manage life in the New World, and also to help them interact with the Old. The development of a viable money supply was necessary to support overseas trade and keep New England's colonists connected to the transatlantic network of English dissenting religion. How did they build an economy from the ground up?
Mark Peterson, PhD is the Edmund S. Morgan Professor of History at Yale University. In two previous books and his other writings, Professor Peterson has examined the relationship between the growth of Puritan religious culture and the expansion of economic and political power in Boston and the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He has a special interest in Boston’s mint master and political leader, John Hull, and is editing his writings for publication. Professor Peterson’s New England trilogy will be completed with a final volume focused on the transformation of material culture, consumer demand, and public expenditure from the 16th to the 19th century.
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Boston Food Access Council
Wednesday, September 25
6 - 8pm
Boston City Hall, Room 801, O'Neill Conference Room, 1 City Hall Square, Boston
We are excited to announce the inaugural meeting of the newly structured Boston Food Access Council (BFAC) September 25th, 2019. You might have previously been aware of the BFAC and attended meetings in the past. Since our last public meeting in December 2018 we have been working with a Transition Committee to develop a new structure for the council that will amplify the voices of community members and leaders and ensure a council structure that can effectively and collaboratively tackle food access issues in Boston.
At the September meeting we will discuss general goals of food councils nationwide, how the BFAC will work to accomplish these goals, and how the new structure of the BFAC is going to help facilitate more community involvement and get things done.
Anyone is welcome to be a part of the BFAC and there will be many opportunities to be involved in shaping the BFAC’s goals and strategies in addressing Boston’s food insecurity issues. At varying levels of involvement and commitment you can bring your voice to the table, as a BFAC Member, Voting Member, Steering Committee member, or by participating in one of the BFAC Working Groups. It’s an exciting time for the BFAC and we are looking forward to focusing the work of the BFAC on food access topics most important to you.
Please note: If you would like to become a Voting Member of the BFAC, you must attend both the September and December meetings. If you would like to become a Steering Committee member, you should also attend the September meeting to learn how to run for the Steering Committee in December. More about the new structure of the BFAC will be discussed on September 25th. Please share this information with anyone in your network who might be interested in contributing to this conversation. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to respond to me, reach out at bostonfoodaccesscouncil@boston.gov or call 617-635-3717.
Look forward to seeing you at the BFAC meeting in September.
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Climate Ready Dorchester 1st Community Open House
Wednesday, September 25
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EDT
BCYF Leahy-Holloran Community Center, One Worrell Street, Dorchester
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/climate-ready-dorchester-1st-community-open-house-tickets-70502333377
Join our first community open house to learn more about Climate Ready Dorchester!
Climate Ready Boston is Mayor Walsh’s ongoing initiative to help Boston grow and prosper in the face of climate change. Protecting the Dorchester community from sea level rise and coastal flooding is a priority. Through this project, we will better understand current and future flood risk and find ways to protect the neighborhood.
This event will be like an open house with posters and interactive activities for you to learn more about the project, talk to experts, and share your thoughts on how to best protect Dorchester from climate change.
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Harvard Philosophy Department Faculty and ThinkerAnalytix Panel
WHEN Wednesday, Sep. 25, 2019, 6:30 – 8:15 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Club of Boston, 374 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education, Ethics, Humanities, Lecture, Support/Social
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Club of Boston
SPEAKER(S) Ned Hall, Norman E. Vuilleumier Professor of Philosophy and Department Chair
Sean Kelly, Teresa G. and Ferdinand F. Martignetti Professor of Philosophy
COST Complimentary with registration
TICKET WEB LINK president@harvardclub.com
CONTACT INFO Matt Hegarty president@harvardclub.com
DETAILS Argument mapping is a visual method of displaying how reasons work to support a claim. A map exposes the fundamental structure of the argument so that everyone can see how all the reasons fit together. How does argument mapping work? How does it expose hidden assumptions and objections to a premise? More broadly, how does it develop critical thinking and reasoning skills, and what are this tool’s practical benefits in terms of success in school, the workplace, and beyond? What is its potential for enriching philosophical, scientific, political and civic engagement?
Professors Ned Hall and Sean Kelly of Harvard’s Philosophy Department and their pioneering colleagues at ThinkerAnalytix will honor us in discussing the development and promise of argument mapping. Both serve on ThinkerAnalytix’s advisory board.
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Heading for Extinction (and What to Do about It)
Wednesday, September 25
6:30 p.m.
The Public Library of Brookline (Hunneman Hall), 361 Washington Street, Brookline
We are in the midst of an unprecedented climate crisis and ecological breakdown that threatens the continuation of life as we know it: record atmospheric carbon levels, global temperature rise, deforestation, plastic pollution, mass extinction of species... Join us to hear the latest information on the state of our planet, and learn how to become part of a global movement of social transformation for a livable future.
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General Assembly presents: Artificial Intelligence for Good
Wednesday, September 25
6:30 PM to 8:30 PM
General Assembly Boston, 125 Summer Street, Boston
Artificial Intelligence is leading the way in technology as a forefront in innovation, creativity, and advancement. Every day, new inventions are being created that are paving the way for technological advancement in today's world.
Join us for a conversation as we discuss these new inventions and how they are helping create a better world for tomorrow. Learn from our panelists as we delve deeper into the topic of artificial intelligence, how further innovation is helping create a better world, and what we can expect and gain from it.
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Cambridge Council Candidates Night: Our Local Environment
Wednesday, September 25
6:45 PM – 9:00 PM EDT
806 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/council-candidates-night-our-local-environment-tickets-70045009509
How will City Councilor candidates draw upon our inherent social, natural, and financial resources to make our local environment better and our community more connected? How will they prioritize a clean, healthy and equitable city for children and families now and in the future? How will they show local leadership and be a global inspiration for other cities and towns? Join this coalition-led event of Mothers Out Front, Green Cambridge, Neighborhood Solar, Fresh Pond Residents Alliance, and the Cambridge node of 350.org for an amazing evening of discussion of the issues!
Come at 6:45 to get settled, we'll promptly start at 7pm!
More information at https://www.facebook.com/events/459506411558104/
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Anthropocene: The Human Epoch
Wednesday, September 25
7:00PM
Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle Street, Cambridge
Join the GSAS Student Center Arts Fellows for a special screening of the arthouse film Anthropocene to coincide with the U.N. Climate Action Summit.
Contact Name: gsas.arts@gmail.com
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An evening with Holocaust Survivor Sami Steigman
Wednesday, September 25
7:00pm to 9:00pm
Northeastern, Curry Student Center, 340, 346 Huntington Avenue, Boston
As a Jew from Czernowitz, Sami's life story is remarkable. He was born on December 21, 1939. From 1941 through 1944, he was with his parents in Ukraine at Mogilev-Podolsky, a labor camp in an area called Transnistria. Subjected to Nazi medical experimentation, his life was saved by a German woman when he was dying of starvation. The camp was liberated by the Red Army and he grew up in Transylvania. In 1961, he immigrated to Israel and served in the Israeli Air Force.
Steigmann will share his story about life in a Nazi labor camp, the medical experiments he was subjected to, how he survived and the many lessons he’s learned throughout his life.
Listen to his first-hand account of a dark period of recent history and be inspired by a story of resilience and the ability to overcome the greatest difficulties. We encourage every student in Boston to come and hear his remarkable story. A once in a lifetime event.
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Take Back the Grid Town Hall
Wednesday, September 25
7-9 pm
MIT, Building 4-237, 182 Memorial Drive (Rear), Cambridge
As you may know, Eversource is attempting to build an electrical substation in East Cambridge across from the Kennedy-Longfellow elementary school and a public park. There has been some opposition to the substation from the residents of the area, who would rather have the land used for recreation, but many residents are not even aware of the plan to build a substation in the area due to poor communication by Eversource.
The Take Back the Grid campaign, coordinated by the Boston DSA Ecosocialists and supported by Boston Science for the People, will be hosting a town hall meeting for members of the East Cambridge community and any other interested citizens on Wednesday 9/25 from 7-9 pm at MIT building 4 room 237 (enter through 77 Massachusetts Avenue and follow signs to find the room). There is a Facebook event here.
Substations emit powerful EMF, which may be harmful to the health of children and pregnant women. Substations have also been known to explode, like this one in Madison, WI and the ConEd explosion in New York last year. In addition, the increased electrical demand in the area has been driven by the biotech and other industries, but ratepayers will be the ones to bear the cost in increased electrical rates. The substation also represents an increase in infrastructure that will be powered by fossil fuels (electricity from the site is estimated to be generated by 86% natural gas) and an example of residents having almost no say in local utility decisions.
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THE END OF MEAT?
Wednesday, September 25
7 pm
Meeting House First Parish Church, 1446 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Are Americans ready to give up their love affair with burgers - if it means we could save the planet?
Part of the Green New Deal is to "get rid of farting cows" which they say, would dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Red meat has a greater impact on the climate than any other food and the average American still eats 3 burgers a week, despite all the health findings to the contrary. What are the other edible options out there in the marketplace and why are is the beef industry so opposed to calling a mushroom "meaty"? Come and find out more about how what you eat affects you and everyone else.
Carnivores, omnivores and vegans are all welcome!
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The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty
Wednesday, September 25
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes DARON ACEMOGLU, renowned economist and Institute Professor at MIT, for a discussion of his latest book, The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty.
About The Narrow Corridor
Liberty is hardly the "natural" order of things. In most places and at most times, the strong have dominated the weak and human freedom has been quashed by force or by customs and norms. Either states have been too weak to protect individuals from these threats or states have been too strong for people to protect themselves from despotism. Liberty emerges only when a delicate and precarious balance is struck between state and society.
There is a Western myth that political liberty is a durable construct, a steady state, arrived at by a process of "enlightenment." This static view is a fantasy, the authors argue; rather, the corridor to liberty is narrow and stays open only via a fundamental and incessant struggle between state and society. The power of state institutions and the elites that control them has never gone uncontested in a free society. In fact, the capacity to contest them is the definition of liberty. State institutions have to evolve continuously as the nature of conflicts and needs of society change, and thus society's ability to keep state and rulers accountable must intensify in tandem with the capabilities of the state.
This struggle between state and society becomes self-reinforcing, inducing both to develop a richer array of capacities just to keep moving forward along the corridor. Yet this struggle also underscores the fragile nature of liberty. It is built on a fragile balance between state and society, between economic, political, and social elites and citizens, between institutions and norms. One side of the balance gets too strong, and as has often happened in history, liberty begins to wane. Liberty depends on the vigilant mobilization of society. But it also needs state institutions to continuously reinvent themselves in order to meet new economic and social challenges that can close off the corridor to liberty.
Today we are in the midst of a time of wrenching destabilization. We need liberty more than ever, and yet the corridor to liberty is becoming narrower and more treacherous. The danger on the horizon is not "just" the loss of our political freedom, however grim that is in itself; it is also the disintegration of the prosperity and safety that critically depend on liberty. The opposite of the corridor of liberty is the road to ruin.
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Webinar: Back from the Brink—Organizing Locally to Prevent Nuclear War
Wednesday, September 25
8:00–9:00 p.m. EDT
The Trump administration is currently moving forward with plans to spend more than $1 trillion to replace the entire US nuclear arsenal and build new more "usable" nuclear weapons. All while walking away from critical nuclear arms control agreements that have made the world a safer place.
But with your help, we are pushing back and Congress is showing more leadership. Over the last year, numerous communities—large and small—around the country have spoken out and endorsed Back From the Brink: The Call to Prevent Nuclear War, a national initiative conceived and launched by the Union of Concerned Scientists and other organizations, which lays out a common-sense, achievable set of policy solutions that will reduce the risks posed by nuclear weapons and make the entire world safer.
UCS invites you to a national webinar to join the growing Back from the Brink movement and leverage your community's voice to help prevent nuclear war. When it comes to preventing nuclear war, everyone's voice matters—every person, every community.
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Thursday, September 26
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The Carbin App: Cutting CO2 Emissions and Monitoring the Performance of our Roads
Thursday, September 26
11:00am to 12:00pm
Webinar
In this webinar, we provide an update on the smartphone app Carbin which can assess the state of our infrastructure. With many improvements over the past 6 months, Carbin has now become an automatized system which, with engagement from the public, can be easily used to extract information on the quality of roads and their environmental impact at the city, state, or country scale. In Cambridge, MA, for which Carbin has recorded 350k individual measurements, we show that, when combined with traffic information, this approach can be used to optimize the management of our road infrastructure. We also discuss fixmyroad.us, a website that displays Carbin’s global impact with measurements from 20 countries and over 120k miles of analyzed data.
The webinar will be hosted by CSHub research assistant Jake Roxon. The app was developed in collaboration with Shahd Nara (Harvard & Carbin); Athikom Wanichku (MIT & Carbin); Bader Anini (Birzeit University & Carbin); Malik Ziq (Birzeit University & Carbin); Osama Fakhouri (Birzeit University & Carbin); Meshkat Botshekan (UMass Dartmouth); Erfan Asaadi (UMass Dartmouth); Arghavan Louhghalam (UMass Dartmouth); and Mazdak Tootkaboni (UMass Dartmouth); Joy Chamoun (American University of Beirut); Naseem Daher (American University of Beirut).
The MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub (CSHub) webinar series offers information of general interest to members of the building, paving, and construction communities, as well as to educators, students, journalists, and law and policy-makers interested in the environmental and economic impacts of decision-making concerning infrastructure. Videos of past webinars are archived to the CSHub YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/CSHubMIT
Webinars are free and open to the public. Presentations are geared toward a lay audience.
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Can You Hear Me Here?: Understanding and Protecting Underwater Soundscapes in US National Marine Sanctuaries
Thursday, September 26
12 – 1PM
Tufts, Multi-Purpose Room, Curtis Hall, 474 Boston Avenue, Medford
Leila Hatch, US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Sound travels further and faster underwater than it does in air, and many marine animals, from zooplankton to crabs to fish to whales, are known to detect sound as a means of environmental surveillance. Additionally, many of these animals produce sounds themselves, contributing to the total "soundscape" of marine places and serving communication functions that sustain biologically central behaviors such as feeding, selection of mates, avoidance of predators and protection of young. This talk will discuss how and why the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) studies underwater acoustics, particularly in protected areas such as National Marine Sanctuaries. We will listen to sounds representing the diversity of animals, physical processes and, increasingly, human activities that make up the sonic world in these special places. Highlighting NOAA's Ocean Noise Strategy we will discuss efforts within US government and internationally that are seeking to reduce these impacts.
Dr. Leila Hatch is a marine ecologist working for the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and based at Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, a marine protected area managed by NOAA off the coast of Massachusetts. Dr. Hatch studies the ways that animals use sound underwater, and the impacts of noise produced by human activities on marine environments. Dr. Hatch began working for NOAA in 2006 after serving as a fellow with the US House of Representatives’ Resources Committee. She received a BS from Yale College and a PhD from Cornell University, both in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Her doctoral work used molecular genetic and acoustic tools to identify population boundaries among northern hemisphere fin whales. Along the way she participated in research programs off the coasts of Australia, Madagascar, Hawaii, California, and Massachusetts studying potential impacts from a variety of human activities (e.g., whale-watching, vessel traffic, military sonars, active acoustic research sources) on whale and dolphin populations.
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Ruling Beyond Empire: The "White Rajahs" of Sarawak, Coercion, and Balancing
WHEN Thursday, Sep. 26, 2019, 12:15 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, 1 Brattle Square, Room 350, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR International Security Program
SPEAKER(S) Jacqueline L. Hazelton, Assistant Professor, Department of Strategy and Policy, U.S. Naval War College
CONTACT INFO susan_lynch@harvard.edu
DETAILS Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first-come, first-served basis.
LINK https://www.belfercenter.org/event/ruling-beyond-empire-white-rajahs-sarawak-coercion-and-balancing
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Advanced Materials for High Energy Density Li-ion Batteries
Thursday, September 26
3:00pm to 4:00pm
MIT, Building 36-428, Haus Room, 50 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Special DMSE Seminar: Professor Yair Ein-Eli, Technion- Israel Institute of Technology
Electrochemical systems are being viewed as the solution to satisfy the vast and growing demand for high energy density in both portable and stationary devices. Such systems hold great promise, as the need for more energetic “juice” in mobile devices (from small handheld electronics to large mobile systems as electric vehicles (EVs)) dramatically increases as these technologies continue to rapidly evolve.
In this talk, I address both anode and cathode materials in Li-ion batteries. These include lightweight anode current collectors made of CNT (carbon nanotube) tissue materials with metal fluoride coatings applied by atomic layer deposition (ALD) and 5 volt lithiated Mn spinel Ni doped cathode materials (LiMn1.5Ni0.5O4). The synergy of both technologies will be highlighted in the demonstration of a flexible high energy Li-ion battery.
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Social Entrepreneurship with Melissa Corto and Namya Mahajan
Thursday, September 26
3:00pm to 5:00pm
MIT, Building 4-265, 182 Memorial Drive (Rear), Cambridge
As part of MIT Solve's First Year Discovery Class, "How to Change the World: Experiences from Social Entrepreneurs," we will be inviting guest speakers most weeks and opening it up to the wider community. This week we will be joined by Melissa Corto, the CEO and Founder of Education Modified and Namya Mahajan the Managing Director of the Self-Employed Women's Association of India.
Free event, refreshments provided, just show up!
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Technology, Community Activism, and Public Health: Using NoiseScore to Address Community Noise Issues
Thursday, September 26
3:00 PM – 5:00 PM EDT
BU Hariri Institute for Computing, 111 Cummington Mall, Boston
From road traffic and aircraft noise to live concerts, college parties, and construction, our cities are inundated with noises that can negatively impact our mental and physical health. A recent poll conducted in Boston suggested that many residents suffer in silence, with the overwhelming majority feeling like not only is urban noise impacting their health but that nothing will ever be done about it.
Join our conversation with State Representative Nika Elugardo, community members, and the team that developed the NoiseScore app! We will explore how technology can be used to address community noise issues and officially launch the NoiseScore mobile app and discuss how NoiseScore can be used to organize communities around their noise issues and help them gather data to drive change.
This event is co-sponsored by the Department of Environmental Health at the School of Public Health and the Hariri Institute for Computing at Boston University.
About NoiseScore
The NoiseScore application allows community residents to document and visualize their ever-changing environmental soundscapes. Users can also view community-wide responses on a live heat map.
Led by Dr. Erica Walker at Boston University’s School of Public Health, NoiseScore is a collaboration between the Community Noise Lab, Software & Application Innovation Lab (SAIL), and MSSP Consulting. This project is supported by funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Download NoiseScore on Google Play
Download NoiseScore on the App Store
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HILR Convocation 2019: Heidi Schreck
WHEN Thursday, Sep. 26, 2019, 4 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Sanders Theater, 45 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement
SPEAKER(S) Heidi Schreck
COST Free but tickets required
TICKET WEB LINK https://www.boxoffice.harvard.edu/Online/default.asp?BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::permalink=hilr
CONTACT INFO HILR: 617-495-4072
DETAILS The Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement is pleased to announce the 2019 Robert C. Cobb Sr. Memorial Lecture presented by Heidi Schreck, “What the Constitution Means to Me."
Schreck’s celebrated play of the same title, winner of the Obie Award for Best New American Play and a Pulitzer Prize finalist, is a “deeply affecting traverse of the intersection between a nation’s defining legal document and that nation’s continuing struggle to implement it” (Washington Post).
The show, in which Schreck also stars, has made headlines for its profound impact at a moment when questions of citizenship have never felt more urgent. Its precedent-setting success has revised assumptions about what kind of material can succeed in mainstream theatre—and offered a forcible reminder of the role art can play in our national dialogue.
Following on the show’s highly successful Broadway run, Heidi Schreck comes to Harvard as HILR’s Convocation speaker.
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Evolving Climate-Change Policy in the Republic of Korea—and the World
Thursday, September 26
4:15PM TO 5:30PM
Harvard, Room B-500, Bell Hall, Belfer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Suh-Yong Chung, Korea University, will present as part of the Harvard Project on Climate Agreements seminar series.
Contact Name: Casey Billings
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Nick Montfort, “Poet/Programmers, Artist/Programmers, and Scholar/Programmers: What and Who Are They?”
Thursday, September 26
5:00pm to 6:30pm
MIT, Building E15, Outside room 320, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
Computer programming is a general-purpose way of using computation. It can be instrumental (oriented toward a predefined end, as with the development of well-specified apps and Web services) or exploratory (used for artistic work and intellectual inquiry). Professor Nick Monfort’s emphasis in this talk, as in his own work, is on exploratory programming, that type of programming which can be used as part of a creative or scholarly methodology. He will say a bit about his own work but will use much of the discussion to survey how many other poet/programmers, artist/programmers, and scholar/programmers are creating radical new work and uncovering new insights.
Nick Montfort is Professor of Digital Media at Comparative Media Studies/Writing. He develops computational poetry and art and has participated in dozens of literary and academic collaborations. Recent books include The Future and Exploratory Programming for the Arts and Humanities (MIT Press) and several books of computational poetry: Hard West Turn, The Truelist, #!, the collaboration 2×6, and Autopia. He has worked to contribute to platform studies, critical code studies, and electronic literature.
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Public Lecture with Dean George Q. Daley
WHEN Thursday, Sep. 26, 2019, 5 – 6:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Malkin Penthouse, Littauer Building, 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics
SPEAKER(S) George Q. Daley
Dean of Harvard Medical School
COST Free
CONTACT INFO ejsafraevents@fas.harvard.edu
DETAILS Dean Daley will discuss the history of the public debate over the use of embryonic stem cells, the rise of unproven stem cell-based treatments, and the recent controversy over the use of genome editing for creating designer babies.
LINK Public Lecture with Dean George Q. Daley
Public Lecture with Dean George Q. Daley
WHEN Thursday, Sep. 26, 2019, 5 – 6:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Malkin Penthouse, Littauer Building, 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics
SPEAKER(S) George Q. Daley, Dean of Harvard Medical School
COST Free
CONTACT INFO ejsafraevents@fas.harvard.edu
DETAILS Dean Daley will discuss the history of the public debate over the use of embryonic stem cells, the rise of unproven stem cell-based treatments, and the recent controversy over the use of genome editing for creating designer babies.
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“Is this thing on?!” An Orientation to Podcasting for Social Change
Thursday, September 26
5:00 PM – 7:00 PM EDT
Barr Foundation, 2 Atlantic Avenue, Boston
Featuring insights from PRX Director of Training, Kerry Donahue
Podcasting is one of the fastest-growing ways to reach specific audiences with deep and engaging content—a perfect tool for communicating about social change. However, sometimes getting started is the hardest part. In this orientation, we’ll equip you with the knowledge and lingo to begin your podcast journey. More than 650 people have attended this popular orientation with the intention of starting their audio journey. After the orientation, you will know:
A broad overview of the expansive podcast landscape (including makers, distributors, and listeners)
The most important questions to ask before you start your podcast (depending on your intended audience)
What support the PRX Podcast Garage can offer you (from basic workshops to advanced courses)
This orientation is hosted by The Communications Network, The Podcast Garage, the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, and the Barr Foundation. This event is perfect for both communications and program staff. Bring your questions!
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Chicago Public Schools: A Transformation Story: A conversation with Janice Jackson on life after 30 years of education reform
WHEN Thursday, Sep. 26, 2019, 5:30 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Longfellow Hall, 13 Appian Way, Cambridge
TYPE OF EVENT Forum
PROGRAM/DEPARTMENT Askwith Forum
BUILDING/ROOM Askwith Hall
CONTACT NAME Donor and Alumni Relations
CONTACT EMAIL askwith_forums@gse.harvard.edu
SPONSORING ORGANIZATION/DEPARTMENT Harvard Graduate School of Education
REGISTRATION REQUIRED No
ADMISSION FEE This event is free and open to the public.
FEATURED EVENT Askwith Forums
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education
DETAILS Speaker: Janice Jackson, Chief Executive Officer, Chicago Public Schools
Discussant: Deborah Jewell-Sherman, Ed.M.’92, Ed.D.’95, Gregory R. Anrig Professor of Practice in Educational Leadership
In 1987, former Secretary of Education Bill Bennett said he wasn’t sure if there was a school system worse than Chicago Public Schools (CPS). Today, thanks to the deliberate work of educators, community leaders, parents, universities, and partners, CPS is receiving national acclaim and the district has emerged as a model for accelerating academic growth. This session will discuss the transformation of CPS, focusing on major reform efforts, including accountability, school choice, and data-driven student intervention. And it will dive deeply into the district’s strategy for recruiting, developing, and retaining high-quality and empowered school principals to continue this transformation.
We invite you to attend the Ed School’s signature public lecture series which highlights leaders in the field, shares new knowledge, generates spirited conversation, and offers insight into the highest priority challenges facing education.
**Seating is first come, first seated.
To receive the Askwith Forums e-newsletter for up-to-date information,
please sign up at gse.harvard.edu/askwith
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Tree Mob: From Solar Power to Flower Power
Thursday, September 26
5:45PM
Arnold Arboretun, Weld Hill Solar Array, 1300 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain
Danny Schissler, project coordinator, and Brandan Keegan, gardner, Arnold Arboretum, will discuss the Weld Hill Solar Project as part of Arnold Arboretum Climate Preparedness Week.
The Weld Hill Solar Project represents the Arnold Arboretum’s most ambitious sustainability initiative to date. Join Danny Schissler to learn about this extensive photovoltaic system and Brendan Keegan to hear about the initial development of a native plant meadow for pollinators within the solar field.
Contact Name: Adi Shafir
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Race After Technology
Thursday, September 26
6:30pm
Cambridge Library, Lecture Hall, 449 Broadway, Cambridge
Ruha Benjamin
In her latest book, Race After Technology, Ruha Benjamin cuts through tech-industry hype to understand how emerging technologies, from everyday apps to complex algorithms can reinforce white supremacy and deepend social inequity. Benjamin argues discriminatory designs encode inequity by explicitly amplifying racial hierarchies, by ignoring but thereby replicating socil divisions, or by aiming to fix racial bias but ultimately doing quite the opposite.
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Cooked: Survival by Zipcode
Thursday, September 26
6:30-9:00 pm
Fitzgerald Theater, Cambridge Rindge & Latin School, 459 Broadway
Screening of the new documentary film Cooked: Survival by Zipcode and panel discussion with award-winning director Judith Helfand; Claude Jacob, Cambridge's Chief Public Health Officer; and Dr. Gaurab Basu, Co-Director for Health Equity, Education, & Advocacy at the Cambridge Health Alliance. The film is about the 1995 Chicago heat wave, the role of social vulnerability in the high mortality rate, and the need for preventative action. This is a presentation of Climate Preparedness Week, an initiative of Communities Respond to Extreme Weather (CREW), the City of Cambridge, City of Boston, and others.
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Authors@MIT | Jeanne Ross, Cynthia Beath & Martin Mocker: Designed for Digital
Thursday, September 26
7:00pm
MIT, Building N50, MIT Press Bookstore, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Join the MIT Press Bookstore in welcoming authors Jeanne W. Ross, Cynthia M. Beath, and Martin Mocker to discuss their latest book, Designed for Digital: How to Architect Your Business for Sustained Success.
This book offers pan essential guide for retooling organizations for digital success, with examples that include Amazon, BNY Mellon, DBS Bank, LEGO, Philips, Schneider Electric, USAA, and many other global organizations. Drawing on five years of research and in-depth case studies, the book is an essential guide for companies that want to disrupt rather than be disrupted in the new digital landscape.
Jeanne W. Ross is Principal Research Scientist at the MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research.
Cynthia M. Beath is Professor Emerita at the University of Texas McCombs School of Business.
Martin Mocker is Professor at ESB Business School at Reutlingen University, Germany, and Research Scientist at the MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research.
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The Rabbit Effect: Live Longer, Happier, and Healthier with the Groundbreaking Science of Kindness
Thursday, September 26
7:00 pm
Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street, Brookline
Dr. Kelli Harding
When Columbia University doctor Kelli Harding began her clinical practice, she never intended to explore the invisible factors behind our health–but then there were the rabbits. In 1978, a seemingly straightforward experiment designed to establish the relationship between high blood cholesterol and heart health in rabbits discovered that kindness—in the form of a particularly nurturing post-doc—made the difference between a heart attack and a healthy heart. At once paradigm-shifting and empowering, The Rabbit Effect shares a radical new way to think about health, wellness, and how we live.
Dr. Kelli Harding is an assistant professor of psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center. She is a diplomat of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, as well as boarded in the specialty of psychosomatic (mind-body) medicine. Kelli works in the emergency room at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, and has appeared on Today, Good Morning America, NPR, The New York Times, Medscape, WFUV’s Cityscape, and US News & World Report.
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They Will Have to Die Now: Mosul and the Fall of the Caliphate
Thursday, September 26
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes award-winning journalist and author JAMES VERINI—Contributing Writer for National Geographic—for a discussion of his new book, They Will Have to Die Now: Mosul and the Fall of the Caliphate.
About They Will Have to Die Now
James Verini arrived in Iraq in the summer of 2016 to write about life in the Islamic State. He stayed to cover the jihadis’ last great stand, the Battle of Mosul, not knowing it would go on for nearly a year, nor that it would become, in the words of the Pentagon, "the most significant urban combat since WWII."
They Will Have to Die Now takes the reader into the heart of the conflict against the most lethal insurgency of our time. We see unspeakable violence, improbable humanity, and occasional humor. We meet an Iraqi major fighting his way through the city with a bad leg; a general who taunts snipers; an American sergeant who removes his glass eye to unnerve his troops; a pair of Moslawi brothers who welcomed the Islamic State, believing, as so many Moslawis did, that it might improve their shattered lives. Verini also relates the rich history of Iraq, and of Mosul, one of the most beguiling cities in the Middle East.
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Friday, September 27
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NU Energy Conference
Friday, September 27
8:00am to 7:30pm
Northeastern, Curry Student Center, Ballroom, McLeod Suites, Senate Chambers, Indoor Quad Pit, 346 Huntington Avenue, Boston
Cost: $40 - USE CODE: NUEC20 for a discount
The NU Energy Conference is focused on providing a rich energy experience by delivering an industry perspective and facilitating collaborative dialogue. The conference contains 2 Keynote Addresses, 8 panel discussions split in the Technology and Business/Policy tracks, an interactive expo area pinned with a jobs board and a fun evening at our very own Energy 'happy hour'. This is the place to be if you are seeking to start a career in the energy field, learn about the various industry trends in terms of resilience and disruption, an emerging or established professional looking for corporate perspectives and meet like-minded enthusiasts. Breakfast, Lunch, beverages and drinks will be served. We look forward to hosting you!
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Materials Day 2019: Nano)materials for Biosensing and Diagnostics
Friday, September 27
all day
BU, 8 Saint Mary's Street, Boston
Poster session and wine reception will take place at the conclusion of the event. Speakers: Russ Algar, University of British Columbia
Trisha Andrew, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Heather Clark, Northeastern University
James Galagan, Boston University
Niko Hildebrandt, Université de Rouen and Université Paris-Saclay
Samir Mitragotri, Harvard University
Hadi Shafiee, Brigham and Women's Hospital
Hadley Sikes, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Register by Sunday, September 15th
Event Description
Novel materials development in fluorescent and plasmonic nanoparticles, anti-fouling surfaces, and textile electronics are helping to propel innovations in personal health, wellness monitoring, and cell phone-based diagnostic tools. Eminent scholars and BU students will present on recent advances that are part of a movement to reshape the information each of us has regarding our own health and wellness.
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New England Electricity Restructuring Roundtable (#163)
State Utility Regulators & NE's Clean Energy Future; and scaling Up Off-Shore Wind
Friday, September 27
9:00 am - 12:30 pm
Foley Hoag, 13th Floor Conference Room, 155 Seaport Blvd, Boston
Cost: $0 - $90
State Utility Regulators & New England's Clean Energy Future:
Where the Rubber Meets the Road
Come and meet New England's new public utility commission chairs as we explore the critically important role that PUC's play in New England's clean energy and climate mitigation future. The panel will touch upon a range of topics that fall under their purview-from the traditional role of commissions in ensuring just and reasonable rates (and rate designs), to their more recent responsibilities in other critical areas. These include approving energy efficiency plans and long-term clean energy contracts, and undertaking regulatory proceedings on a wide-range of clean energy-related topics, such as grid modernization, net metering, and distributed generation interconnection standards.
Chairman Marissa Gillett, Connecticut PURA
Chairman Phil Bartlett, Maine PUC
Chairman Matthew Nelson, Massachusetts DPU
Scaling-Up Off-Shore Wind in New England
Wind development off the shores of New England is poised to accelerate rapidly in the near future-with Vineyard Wind (800 MW MA) and Revolution Wind (400 MW RI & 200 MW CT) scheduled to begin construction soon-and new Massachusetts and Connecticut OSW-related RFPs in progress.
Meanwhile, MA DOER recently released a new OSW study (including a detailed set of recommendations), Anbaric announced its plans to develop Brayton Point to service OSW with a transmission landing point and storage, and the University of Delaware released an OSW supply chain study for the East Coast. In addition, New Jersey recently awarded 1,100 MW in its first OSW RFP, and the results of New York's first major OSW RFP are forthcoming.
With all of this in the works, late September will be an opportune time to explore sensible ways to scale up off-shore wind to best maximize net economic and environmental benefits.
Patrick Woodcock, Undersecretary of Energy, MA EEA
Dr. Stephanie McClellan, Special OSW Initiative, U of Delaware
Lars Pedersen, CEO, Vineyard Wind
Ed Krapels, President & CEO, Anbaric
David Hang, President/Head of Development, Ørsted
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The U.S. – Central America Immigration Crisis: Learn how it started, why it continues, and what you can do to make a difference
WHEN Friday, Sep. 27, 2019, 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CGIS South, Tsai Auditorium, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Conferences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies
SPEAKER(S) Jocelyn Viterna, Professor of Sociology, Harvard University
Oscar Martinez, Salvadoran investigative journalist
Elizabeth Oglesby, Associate Professor of Geography and Development, Arizona University
Ieva Jusionyte, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Social Studies, Harvard University
Deborah Anker, Clinical Professor of Law; Founder and Director, Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic
Sabrineh Ardalan, Assistant Clinical Professor of Law; Assistant Director, Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic
Allegra Love, Attorney and Executive Director, Santa Fe Dreamers Project
Patricia Montes, Executive Director, Boston Centro Presente (TBC)
Centro Presente, Act on a Dream, Boston Refugee Youth Enrichment (BRYE), Partners for Empowering Neighborhoods (PEN), SIM
COST Free and Open to the Public
CONTACT INFO drclas@fas.harvard.edu
LINK https://drclas.harvard.edu/event/us-–-central-america-immigration-crisis-learn-how-it-started-why-it-continues-and-what
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Europe’s Strategic Role in Tackling Today’s Global Challenges
WHEN Friday, Sep. 27, 2019, 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Adolphus Busch Hall at Cabot Way, 27 Kirkland Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Europe in the World Seminar
SPEAKER(S) Christos Stylianides, Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid & Crisis Management (2014-2019), European Commission
Chair Grzegorz Ekiert, Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Government, Harvard University; CES Director
CONTACT INFO Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES)
DETAILS As global challenges have become more pressing and more complex, Europe’s strategic role in tackling these challenges is becoming more apparent. Christos Stylianides, European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, will speak about the European Union (EU) as an indispensable global actor and will present its characteristics.
He will also explain why this is important and will present the “tools” the EU has such as humanitarian and development aid, its key role in combating climate change and brokering international agreements.
Stylianides will also argue that the EU-US partnership is more than security-oriented. It’s complementary and based on shared values, principles and interests. In doing so, Stylianides will present the common challenges the EU and the US face, such as Africa, climate change, and the defense of multilateralism.
The discussion will be followed by the weekly CES Friday Lunch at 12:30-1:30 p.m.
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Cooked: Survival by Zipcode
Friday, September 27
11am - 2pm
Northeastern, Cabral Center, John D. O'Bryant African American Institute, 40 Leon Street, Boston
Community Summit and Film Screening
In partnership with Northeastern University's Global Resilience Institute and the John D. O'Bryant African American Institute, SSL is proud to sponsor this event focused on social resilience in the face of climate threats.
Join us for a screening of the award winning Cooked: Survival by Zipcode and an opportunity to discuss the power of social cohesion, radical resilience, and the critical everyday work of community-based organizations in the face of, and in the wake of climate change disasters.
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Detailed comparisons of smog chamber measurements and chemical mechanistic simulations to improve secondary organic aerosol formation mechanisms
Friday, September 27
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 48-316, Ralph M Parsons Laboratory, 15 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Josh Moss, MIT
Environmental Science Seminar Series:
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Global food security with sustainable groundwater withdrawals: a collaboration between hydrologists and agricultural economists
Speaker: Danielle Grogan, University of New Hampshire
Friday, September 27
12:00 PM
Tufts, Robinson Hall, Room 253, 212 College Avenue, Medford
More information at https://engineering.tufts.edu/cee/news-events/seminars
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We're Not Going Anywhere, Baker: Office Takeover
Friday, September 27
12 PM – 3 PM
24 Beacon Street, Boston
The Massachusetts government has failed its people on climate. With our current laws, we’re set to achieve 100% renewable energy by the year 2105. Yes, you read that right.
This is because cowardly politicians like Governor Baker and Speaker DeLeo put the interests of fossil fuels and utilities above those of the people, and have failed to push for ambitious enough legislation to protect us from climate catastrophe.
So on September 27th, exactly a week after the global climate strike, Sunrise will go to the statehouse to demand they pass a state-wide Green New Deal, and lead the country in addressing this crisis. Join us!
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Moral Budget for MA
Friday, September 27
2:00pm to 6:00pm
MIT, Building 3-133, 33 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Congress is currently debating a discretionary budget which spends more than 50% of our income tax dollars on endless wars, nuclear weapons upgrades, foreign military bases, and other military accounts. Financing this requires cutting major programs funding human and environmental needs nationally, and therefore also in Massachusetts.
Come to this comprehensive, afternoon-long program that will explore alternative action via the People’s Budget generated by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and just recently, the Moral Budget released by the Poor People’s Campaign.
Full program listing at https://radius.mit.edu/programs/developing-moral-budget-massachusetts
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Mass Meditation: Love for the Earth, Love for the Future
Friday, September 27
2:30 p.m.
Dewey Square Park, Boston
On Friday, September 27 we will meet in Dewey Square Park in Boston at 2:30pm to meditate for the love of the earth, her creatures, and our collective future.
The meditation will be in support of the Global Climate Strike called for by Greta Thunberg and the main Extinction Rebellion MA action. The program will involve silent seated and walking meditation, drums, and chanting; and walking to a location close to the main XR action.
The event is being organized by XR Buddhists. However, persons of any faith who share a commitment to non-violence, inclusivity, and care for the Earth and her creatures are welcome to participate and contribute to the program in coordination with the organizers.
Meditators will wear green (any shade), unless you have special clothing related to your faith tradition. If you do, please wear that. We will be representing the earth element. You are welcome to bring a small potted plant or foliage adornment. If you would like to have something to sit on, feel free to bring a cushion or lightweight stool as long as you can easily carry it.
RSVP below to receive information and updates about time, location, program, community agreements, etc. Ahead of the event there will also be an informational Zoom meeting (you can attend on Weds Sept 18, 8:45pm or Sept 23 at 8:45pm)-- check your email for the link.
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In the Shadow of Justice: Postwar Liberalism and the Remaking of Political Philosophy
Friday, September 27
3:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store and the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics welcome KATRINA FORRESTER—Assistant Professor of Government and Social Studies at Harvard University—for a discussion of her new book, In the Shadow of Justice: Postwar Liberalism and the Remaking of Political Philosophy. She will be joined in conversation by BRANDON M. TERRY, Assistant Professor of African and African American Studies and Social Studies at Harvard.
About In the Shadow of Justice
In the Shadow of Justice tells the story of how liberal political philosophy was transformed in the second half of the twentieth century under the influence of John Rawls. In this first-ever history of contemporary liberal theory, Katrina Forrester shows how liberal egalitarianism―a set of ideas about justice, equality, obligation, and the state―became dominant, and traces its emergence from the political and ideological context of the postwar United States and Britain.
In the aftermath of the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War, Rawls’s A Theory of Justice made a particular kind of liberalism essential to political philosophy. Using archival sources, Forrester explores the ascent and legacy of this form of liberalism by examining its origins in midcentury debates among American antistatists and British egalitarians. She traces the roots of contemporary theories of justice and inequality, civil disobedience, just war, global and intergenerational justice, and population ethics in the 1960s and ’70s and beyond. In these years, political philosophers extended, developed, and reshaped this liberalism as they responded to challenges and alternatives on the left and right―from the New International Economic Order to the rise of the New Right. These thinkers remade political philosophy in ways that influenced not only their own trajectory but also that of their critics.
Recasting the history of late twentieth-century political thought and providing novel interpretations and fresh perspectives on major political philosophers, In the Shadow of Justice offers a rigorous look at liberalism’s ambitions and limits.
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Ethics & Computing: Data as Collectively Generated Patterns: Making Sense of Data Ownership
Friday, September 27
3:30pm to 5:30pm
MIT, Building 32-155, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Mathias Risse, Harvard Kennedy School
Ethics and Computing is a lecture series focused on the interface of ethics, politics, and computing. It is sponsored by MIT’s Philosophy Section and Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
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Flood The Seaport
Friday, September 27
3:30 p.m.
Dewey Square, Boston
Flood the Seaport!
Our planet is facing climate, ecological, and societal collapse because of human behavior. We continue to burn oil, coal, & natural gas, and destroy and pollute natural habitats. Together, we must rise up to create a just and livable future for all life on earth. We cannot sit back any longer and hope that someone will save us. We must stand together and demand that our governments tell the truth about the climate emergency and act now.
On September 27, we will peacefully disrupt business-as-usual in order to raise awareness about the climate emergency and call on the public to join the rebellion. Join us at 3:30 PM at Dewey Park near South Station.
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The Price of Free: Film Screening and Conversation with Kailash Satyarthi
WHEN Friday, Sep. 27, 2019, 4 p.m.
WHERE Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Film, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard School of Public Health
SPEAKER(S) Kailash Satyarthi, Nobel Peace Laureate 2014
COST Event is free. Tickets Required.
TICKET WEB LINK http://www.boxoffice.harvard.edu
TICKET INFO https://www.boxoffice.harvard.edu/Online/default.asp?BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::permalink=hsph
CONTACT INFO The Harvard Box Office 617-496-2222
DETAILS "The Price of Free:" Film Screening and Conversation with Kailash Satyarthi.
152 million children are victims of child labor—making the stuff you buy and use every day. Join us Sept. 27 for a special film screening and discussion with Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi on the movement to free every child. With Mintoo Bhandari, Vinni Bhandari, and Dean Michelle A. Williams.
Event is free. Tickets Required. Limit of 4 tickets per person . Tickets valid until 3:45 p.m. Available by phone and internet for a fee.
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Follow Chester!: A College Football Team Fights Racism and Makes History"
Friday, September 27
5:30 PM – 7:30 PM EDT
Harvard Stadium, 65 North Harvard Street, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/meet-local-author-gloria-respress-churchwell-tickets-67559078021
Chester Pierce broke racial barriers when, in 1947, he joined his Harvard football team to play against the University of Virginia. At that time, black people were not allowed to sit at lunch counters, they had to use separate entrances, and they weren’t allowed to play college football against white players. Chester’s team didn’t care about those laws. Amid dropped jaws, jeering, and booing, Chester played, and his teammates followed his lead.
Based on a true story
About the author: Gloria Respress-Churchwell is a co-contributor of the Robert Churchwell Journalism Collection to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Follow Chester! is Churchwell's first picture book. She lives in Boston, Massachusetts.
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Digital Anxieties: A Conversation with Bo Burnham and Jonny Sun
Friday, September 27
6:00pm to 10:00pm
MIT, Building 26-100, 60 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Seating for this event is first come, first served. A free screening of Eighth Grade begins at 8:15pm
Launching his career in 2006 after comedy videos he filmed in his childhood bedroom went viral on YouTube, Bo Burnham became a nationally headlining comic and writer while growing up in the social media spotlight. Jonny Sun, a screen and TV writer, author, and MIT Ph.D. candidate who has over 500,000 social media followers, has also weathered the benefits and burdens digital fame brings. Eighth Grade, Burnham’s directorial debut feature film, and Sun’s TED Talk both tackle social media’s impact on mental health and the virtues of being vulnerable. Burnham and Sun head to MIT to discuss the hyperconnected love and loneliness of the Internet and staying healthy in the digital age. Rosalind Picard, founder and director of the MIT Affective Computing Research Group, will open the event. A free screening of Eighth Grade will follow.
Bo Burnham is a comedian, actor, and director whose viral comedy videos have more than 250 million views. He has produced three full-length comedy albums, three stand-up specials, and co-created and starred in the MTV series Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous. Eighth Grade, his first feature film as a writer and director, won the Writers Guild of America Award for Original Screenplay, the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing on a First-Time Feature Film, and the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay.
Jonny Sun (stylized as “jomny sun”) is the author and illustrator of everyone’s a aliebn when ur a aliebn too (HarperPerennial, 2017) and the illustrator of Gmorning, Gnight! by Lin-Manuel Miranda (Penguin Random House, 2018). He is currently a writer for the animated series BoJack Horseman. His comedic work has appeared in The New Yorker, TIME Magazine, BuzzFeed, Playboy, GQ, and McSweeney’s.
Rosalind Picard is founder and director of the Affective Computing Research Group at MIT, co-director of the Media Lab’s Advancing Wellbeing Initiative, and faculty chair of MIT’s MindHandHeart Initiative. She co-founded the technology companies Empatica, Inc., which creates wearable sensors and analytics to improve health, and Affectiva, Inc., which delivers technology to help measure and communicate emotion.
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Digital Archeology, Virtual Narratives: The Case of Lifta
Friday, September 27
6:30pm to 8:30pm
MIT, Building 7-408, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Digital Archaeology, Virtual Narratives: The Case of Lifta
Keller Gallery, Room 7-408
Exhibition Reception
September 27, 6:30 PM
'Digital Archaeology, Virtual Narratives: The Case of Lifta' is a collaborative workshop bringing together the resources and expertise from the MIT Department of Architecture and the Department of Bible Archeology and Ancient Near East Studies at Ben Gurion University (BGU). Students from the MIT School of Architecture and Planning, in collaboration with archeologists from BGU participated in an interdisciplinary study of the evacuated Palestinian village of Lifta in Jerusalem: one of the only Palestinian villages not destroyed or repopulated by Jews following the 1948 Arab-Israeli. Today, the site which holds archaeological and architectural remains from various historical periods, spanning from Iron Age to the early 20th century, stands uninhabited, yet is filled with past and present conflicts: a symbol of the Palestinian national struggle, a vivid reminder of the consequences of the 1948 war and evacuation, an ecologically diverse landscape, and a contested urban terrain visited daily by locals, tourists, as well as past inhabitants.
Using advanced simulation techniques, 3D scanning, and real-time rendering, as well as an array of archival, historical and scholarly resources, students produced experiential representations of Lifta's contested terrain, in which they challenge both the traditional understanding of the site's past, as well as the traditional approaches to the study of conflicted histories. Working in groups, the students digitally captured of the site using photogrammetry and laser-scanning, and produced several visual installations, making available experiences that present a bricolage of Lifta’s material remains, conceived as a pedagogical tool. The exhibition presents the culmination of these efforts through four immersive and connected virtual reality experiences. In each of these, the audience is exposed to the various narratives and histories in which Lifta was perceived, represented and inhabited, and the narratives constructed by the students, through which Lifta's complex histories can be seen anew.
Please join us for a review and exhibition of the work on Friday, Sep. 27, in the Keller Gallery at the MIT Department of Architecture.
Workshop Review: Friday, Sep. 27, 3-6 PM (Location TBD)
Exhibition Opening: Friday, Sep. 27, 6:30 PM, Keller Gallery, MIT
Instructors: Professor Mark Jarzombek, Professor Takehiko Nagakura, Eliyahu Keller, Eytan Mann
Exhibition Design: Eliyahu Keller, Eytan Mann
Students: Dalma Foldesi, Gabby Heffernan, Matt Ledwidge, Jung In Seo, Radhika Singh, Cristina Solis, Shaoying Tan, David White
The workshop and exhibition are supported by the MISTI Israel Seed Fund, the MIT Department of Architecture, the History, Theory, and Criticism of Architecture and Art Group, and the Design Computation Group
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Saturday, September 28 - Monday, September 30
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Horizon 19
Saturday, September 28- Monday, September 30
8:00 am-6:00 pm
Boston Convention Center, 415 Summer Street, Boston
Cost: students: $50, all others $550 - $1000
Annual clean energy economy conference sponsored by World Climate, Northeast Clean Energy Council, and Massachusetts Clean Energy Center.
More information at https://www.horizon19.org/
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Saturday, September 28
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Active Hope - The Work That Reconnects
Saturday, September 28
9 a.m.
First Parish Unitarian Universalist, 3 Church Street, Cambridge (Harvard Square)
We live in an extraordinary moment on Earth. As we witness unprecedented destruction of ecological, biological, and social systems, we can feel overwhelmed by anger, fear and despair. How can we remain resilient, creative, and empowered to act for the healing of our irreplaceable world?
The Work That Reconnects, developed by teacher/activist Joanna Macy and others, draws on deep ecology, systems theory, and engaged Buddhism. Practices include group meditations, ritual, conversation in pairs, dance, and song. We will explore spiritual, emotional and intellectual aspects of envisioning and creating a life-sustaining society.
This workshop is facilitated by members of the Boston-area Community of Practice.
WHAT to expect from the workshop? practices in love and gratitude
acknowledgement of our pain for the world sources of hope and insight commitment to change, healing and action tools to take into your life
Sat. Sept. 28, 9am to 4pm First Parish Unitarian Universalist, 3 Church St., Cambridge (Harvard Sq.) $20 ($10 for students/low-income). Please bring your own lunch. Snacks and beverages will be provided.
REGISTER BY SEPT. 21 https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4291165 FOR WORKSHOP INFORMATION: Rosalie.h.anders@gmail.com
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON WORK THAT RECONNECTS: http://www.workthatreconnects.org
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Creative Climate Commitment with Susan Israel
WHEN Saturday, Sep. 28, 2019, 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
WHERE The Arnold Arboretum, Hunnewell Building, 125 Arborway, Jamaica Plain
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Sustainability
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Arnold Arboretum
& CREW (Communities Responding to Extreme Weather)
SPEAKER(S) Susan Israel, President and founder, Climate Creatives
COST $20-40
CONTACT INFO Pam Thompson
DETAILS What will motivate you to do more about the climate crisis? Perhaps something fun and visible?
What is preventing you from acting? Maybe fear, and lack of belief that your actions matter? Susan Israel founded Climate Creatives to use art and design to engage people to change, because data alone doesn’t do it. Behavioral change begins with an emotional commitment. In this workshop, participants will work in groups to creatively respond to climate change with discussion and prompting from Susan Israel, architect, artist, climate communicator, and social entrepreneur. Their efforts will result in a collaborative commitment to change, a talisman of sorts, represented in three dimensions.
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Innovative Stable Housing Initiative Idea Incubator
Saturday, September 28
10:00 AM – 2:00 PM EDT
Bruce Bolling Building, 2300 Washington Street, Roxbury
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/innovative-stable-housing-initiative-idea-incubator-tickets-71409966131
We heard your ideas and creative solutions to preserve affordable housing in Boston. Now let’s prioritize!
Join us in shaping a process that will give out almost $900,000 in grants to support housing policy and systems change in Boston.
Grant dollars could support organizing and policy change around anti-displacement, tenant protections, community control of land, and asset building in historically disenfranchised communities.
Come learn more about ISHI’s collaborative process, provide feedback on topic areas, and contribute your ideas to support housing stability in Boston.
All are welcome!
Translation available upon request in Cape Verdean, Mandarin, and Spanish.
For child care, translation and questions, please contact Jamiah Tappin at jtappin@hria.org.
visit http://www.ISHIBoston.org for more details.
The Innovative Stable Housing Initiative is a pilot project funded by Boston Medical Center, Boston Children’s Hospital, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital as part of the MA Department of Public Health’s Determination of Need Community Health Initiative. With a combined investment of almost $3 million dollars over three years, ISHI’s goal is to identify, assess, and fund strategic approaches to increase housing stability for our most vulnerable populations.
ISHI is managed by Health Resources in Action.
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Let's Talk About Food: Saving the Planet One Bite at a Time
WHEN Saturday, Sep. 28, 2019, 10:30 a.m. – 4 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Science Center Plaza, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Health Sciences, Science, Special Events, Sustainability, Working@Harvard
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard University Dining Services
SPEAKER(S) Ari Bernstein
Margaret Li
Sarah Downer
Seth Goldman
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO Crista Martin
DETAILS Harvard University Dining Services and Let’s Talk About Food bring you a fun-filled and inspiring day of cooking, demonstrations, hands-on skills and tastings, innovations and explorations. Join the Greater Boston community of experts and eaters in an all-day exploration of how we can work together to ”Save the Planet One Bite at a Time!” Bring your culinarians, your kids, your scientists, your adventurers and hear, taste and experience the next generation of dining! The event is free and open to the public.
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Revolutionary Change, Not Climate Change
Saturday, September 28
3 - 5pm
Center for Marxist Education, 550 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
For more information contact boston.imt@gmail.com
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TEACH IN: Immigrant Exploitation, the Burning of the Amazon, and University Food Contracts
Saturday, September 28
5:00 PM - 8:00 PM ET
19 Stuart Street, Boston
RSVP at https://realfoodchallenge.z2systems.com/np/clients/realfoodchallenge/eventRegistration.jsp?event=34&
Our communities in the US and abroad are under attack. Recent news about the ICE raid on a poultry plant in Mississippi targeting immigrants and people of color, as well as the unchecked burning of the Amazon, is further demonstrating what has been true for decades: Big Food (agribusiness) corporations are driving labor exploitation and the destruction of indigenous lands. Cafeteria contractors like Aramark, Sodexo, and Compass Group are making deals with these same Big Food corporations - while serving food in the very prisons and immigrant detention centers that perpetuate, and profit from, mass incarceration and white supremacy.
Through stories and workshops, this teach-in will explore the ties between immigration, labor, indigenous rights, Big Food corporations and higher ed. Come to learn, connect, and strategize about what YOU can do to take action on campus.
Dinner will be provided!
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Sunday, September 29
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Interactive Meditation on the Climate Crisis
Sunday, September 29
9 a.m.
Art and Soul Studio, 91 Hampshire Street, Cambridge
INSIGHT DIALOGUE Practice Group With Jan Surrey and Annie Hoffman Sunday, Sept 8, 9-12am (also Nov. 10 and Dec. 15)
What would it mean to wholeheartedly face the magnitude of the growing threat to life on Earth? The Fall ID sessions will be dedicatedly to discovering and investigating what hinders our meeting and penetrating the full truth of the climate emergency, including the power structures that hold it in place. We will cultivate the factors of awakening (including mindfulness, tranquility, energy, joy, equanimity and compassion) that might allow us together to touch and bear the actuality of the crises we are facing today.
Coming face to face with each other and the facts of the climate emergency, we aspire to increase our capacity to engage skillfully and act wisely. Insight Dialogue is a fully engaged relational meditation practice in the Theravāda Insight tradition, originally taught by Gregory Kramer. We welcome those new to the practice as well as those with much experience. We do suggest some prior meditation experience. There will be periods of silent and relational practice, dharma dialogue, and mindful movement.
All are welcome.
Donation to Studio, $5-20, sliding as needed Teaching offered freely, Opportunity for Dana in the Buddhist tradition
Jan Surrey is an Insight Dialogue retreat teacher in the Insight Dialogue Community. For any questions, Jan can be reached at janetsurrey@gmail.com or 617-966-4898.
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Sunrise Boston Orientation Training
Sunday, September 29
10 AM – 6:30 PM
675 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
Full details and registration: http://bit.ly/SunbosSeptemberOT
Join Sunrise Boston for a Youth Climate Organizing Training. Sunrise is working to build a movement of young people to stop climate change and create millions of good jobs in the process.
During the training, we will discuss strategies to ending corruption in politics and learn why we have gotten to this point in society, specifically calling out the oppressive forces of colonialism, capitalism, and white supremacy for disenfranchising many in the name of profit and hate. We will then dive into workshops on mastering the tools necessary to make our plan happen, including bird-dogging, storytelling, and action design.
This training is for any young person (millennials and younger) looking for a meaningful way to protect our climate, our homes, and our values during this critical election year. The training has been designed to be engaging for all levels of background or experience, so whether you're brand new to taking action or a veteran organizer, you'll get a lot out of this experience.
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Presentations & Outreach Training!
Sunday, September 29
2 PM – 4 PM
encuentro 5, 9A Hamilton Place, Boston
The Presentations & Outreach team is having its first ever training!! Wahoo!! Want to join the team? Thinking of giving a presentation to your community? This training is for you!
Come to learn and get excited about:
Why is this important to the movement?
What we typically cover in our presentations
Why do we have the tone and content we do?
How to customize the content to fit your event + interests
FAQs from audiences and suggestions of answers
Practice presenting and answering questions!!!!
Other options for event and grassroots outreach
An overview of our team’s materials and resources
Got time after? Quick team meeting (30m) then come hang with us at Democracy Brewing!
**NOTE!! If you haven't been to an orientation training yet and you are not already part of the P&O team, please go to the orientation training happening on the same day!!!!
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Somerville Growing Center: Harvest Fair
Sunday, September 29
2:30 to 5pm
Somerville Growing Center, 22 Vinal Avenue, Somerville
Harvest activities and games, pumpkin decorating, and a celebration of nature’s bounty. Always fun... a good chance to go look at the newly renovated center.
http:// thegrowingcenter.org
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Be the Change: Lisa Fithian, Shut it Down
Sunday, September 29
3:00pm
Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge
In September's Be the Change Community Action event, veteran activist Lisa Fithian offers her guide to direct action and strategic civil disobedience as the most radical and rapid means to social change.
For decades, Lisa Fithian's work as an advocate for civil disobedience and nonviolent direct action has put her on the frontlines of change. Described by Mother Jones as "the nation's best-known protest consultant," Fithian has supported countless movements including the Battle of Seattle in 1999, rebuilding and defending communities following Hurricane Katrina, Occupy Wall Street, and the uprisings at Standing Rock and in Ferguson. For anyone who wants to become more active in resistance or is just feeling overwhelmed or hopeless, Shut It Down offers strategies and actions you can take right now to promote justice and incite change in your own community.
In Shut It Down Fithian shares historic, behind-the-scenes stories from some of the most important people-powered movements of the past several decades. She shows how movements that embrace direct action have always been, and continue to be, the most radical and rapid means for transforming the ills of our society. Shut It Down is filled with instructions and inspiration for how movements can evolve as the struggle for social justice continues in the Trump era and beyond.
While recognizing that electoral politics, legislation, and policy are all important pathways to change, Shut It Down argues that civil disobedience is not just one of the only actions that remains when all else fails, but a spiritual pursuit that protects our deepest selves and allows us to reclaim our humanity. Change can come, but only if we're open to creatively, lovingly, and strategically standing up, sometimes at great risk to ourselves, to protect what we love.
Lisa Fithian is an anti-racist organizer who has worked for justice since the 1970s. Using creative, strategic nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience, she has won many battles and trained tens of thousands of activists while participating in a range of movements and mobilizations, including Occupy Wall Street, anti-WTO and corporate globalization protests all over the world, the climate justice movement, and more. Lisa enjoys walking, playing with children, gardening, cooking great food, being in the wild, and raising up new generations to be agents of change. She is grateful to play her part in manifesting a world rooted in respect, justice, and liberation.
As part of our Be the Change series, 20% of all sales from 3-5PM will be donated to a nonprofit working in these spaces.
Be the Change is PSB's civic engagement program to provide the resources to those who want to make change at all levels of government and in society in general. Click here for more information about Be the Change.
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Monday, September 30
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SENSE.nano SYMPOSIUM
Monday, September 30
8:00am to 6:30pm
MIT, Samberg Conference Center, Building E52, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Cost: $75
This full-day symposium will highlight the needs for new SENSE technologies, showcase research and innovations, and present the impact of these technologies. One symposium stream will be sensing for AR / VR. The second symposium stream will be in sensing for advanced manufacturing. SENSE includes sensors, new instrumentation, remote sensing, and other measurements technologies. Technical, business, and visionary leaders from MIT, industry, and society will share their experiences and insight via a series of invited technical talks, presentations by MIT-launched startups, posters, and a panel discussion.
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The Design and Analysis of a U.S. Carbon Tax
Monday, September 30
11:45 am to 1:00 pm
Harvard, Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Adele Morris, The Brookings Institution. Lunch is provided.
HKS Energy Policy Seminar
Contact Name: Julie Gardella
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Program on Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate [PAOC] Colloquium
Monday, September 30
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-915, (Ida Green Lounge), 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
Sukyong Lee, Penn State
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Multi-decadal Variability in the North Atlantic Jet Stream, Its Connection to Ocean Variability and the Implications for Decadal Prediction
Monday, September 30
12:00PM
Harvard, Haller Hall (102), Geo Museum, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Isla Simpson, National Center for Atmospheric Research
Abstract: The characteristics of the North Atlantic jet stream play a key role in the weather and climate of western Europe. While much of the year to year variability in the jet stream arises from internal atmospheric processes that are inherently unpredictable on timescales beyond a few days to weeks, any low frequency variability that can be considered forced by slowly varying boundary conditions, offers the potential for extended range predictability of climatological conditions in western Europe. Here it will be demonstrated that over the historical record, the North Atlantic jet stream has displayed pronounced multi-decadal variability in the late winter with implications for precipitation in western Europe. This jet stream variability far exceeds that found in state-of-the-art climate models and far exceeds expectations from the sampling of atmospheric noise. It is found that over the observational record there is a strong connection between Sea Surface Temperature (SST) variability and jet stream variability in the North Atlantic and that this connection appears to be absent in models. Nevertheless, given that models can predict SST variability at long lead time, the observed SST-jet stream-precipitation relationship combined with model predicted SST variability offers the potential for extended range predictability of low frequency precipitation variability in western Europe.
Short Bio: I am a scientist 1 in the Climate and Global Dynamics Laboratory at NCAR and work on large scale atmospheric dynamics. I got my PhD in 2009 from Imperial College London and then did a postdoc at the University of Toronto from 2009-2012. I was then a Lamont postdoctoral fellow and subsequently an associate research scientist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University from 2012-2015 before moving to NCAR in 2015. (Is this sufficient?)
EPS Colloquium
Contact Name: Summer Smith
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Deer in the Suburbs
Monday, September 30
12:10PM
Arnold Arboretum, Weld Hill Lecture Hall, 300 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain
Anne Short Gianotti, Associate Professor, Boston University; Harvard Forest Bullard Fellow
All talks are free and open to everyone. Watch live on the Arboretum’s YouTube channel if you are unable to attend in person. The streaming video is entitled “AA Research Talks Live” and is visible only when a live stream is scheduled or in progress.
Arnold Arboretum Research Talk
617-524-1718
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When Repair Becomes Harm: Science, Law, and the Pursuit of Justice in Chile
Monday, September 30
12:15PM TO 2:00PM
Harvard, CGIS S050, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
with Eden Medina, HASTS, MIT.
Sandwich lunches are provided. Please RSVP to via the online form at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd7VGUkAvTU655Dub2FTGSNMjpVs6f8Qbu0kpmXh6oz11MgFw/viewform by Wednesday at 5PM the week before.
STS Circle at Harvard
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Mobilizing Climate Finance: How and Why Fund Design Matters
Monday, September 30, 2019
12:30pm - 1:45pm
Tufts, Cabot 702, 160 Packard Avenue, Medford
Rishikesh Bhandary, Predoctoral Fellow, The Fletcher School
How do developing countries mobilize finance to address climate change? This talk looks at the role played by national climate funds in crowding in finance from different sources. How do countries choose the institutional design features of these funds? What trade-offs do they face? The national climate funds in focus are Brazil’s Amazon Fund, the Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund, Ethiopia’s Climate Resilient Green Economy Facility, and Indonesia’s funding instrument to tackle forest loss. These funds were first of their kinds when they were set up and their experience forms a vital to understand climate action in developing countries.
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Voting for Strongmen: Nationalist and Populist Leadership in Brazil and India
WHEN Monday, Sep. 30, 2019, 4:30 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CGIS South, Room S020, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute
The David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies
SPEAKER(S) Rachel Brule, Assistant Professor of Global Development Policy, Boston University
Bruno Carvalho, Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures, Harvard University
Patrick Heller, Professor of Sociology and International and Public Affairs, Brown University
COST Free
CONTACT INFO Selmon Rafey
DETAILS Around the world, numerous nations have witnessed a resurgence of strongman politics — and with it, many governments are bypassing democratic norms and embracing populist ideals. Focusing on President Bolsonaro of Brazil and Prime Minister Modi of India, the speakers on this panel will discuss what nationalist and populist leadership means for Brazil, India, and the global political system at large.
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Greentown Labs Circularity Challenge Kickoff
Monday, September 30
5:30 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
Greentown Labs, 444 Somerville Avenue, Somerville
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/greentown-labs-circularity-challenge-kickoff-tickets-68297970067
Join us on Monday, September 30, to learn more about the Circularity Challenge and hear from the program finalists!
The Greentown Labs Circularity Challenge is a six-month accelerator program for startups developed in partnership with BASF, one of the world’s leading chemical companies. The program intends to advance innovative ideas to disrupt the plastics, energy storage and recycling value chains to enable a circular economy. The Circularity Challenge is focused on connecting entrepreneurs with mentors, team members, business, and technical resources they need to launch successful ventures with partnership from BASF and support from Stanley Black and Decker.
At this event attendees will:
Learn more about what circularity means to BASF from Teressa Szelest, President BASF Region North America, Jeffery Lou, President BASF Advanced Materials & Systems Research and Peter Eckes, President BASF Bioscience Research and North America Research Representative, and why they’re advancing a circular economy with disruptive solutions from innovative startups.
Hear from Marty Guay, VP of Business Development at supporting program partner, Stanley Black & Decker, about their commitment to circular economy.
Meet the finalists of the Circularity Challenge and vote for their favorite pitch.
Network with cleantech entrepreneurs, investors, students and ‘friends of cleantech.’
If you have an idea that will disrupt the plastics, energy storage, and recycling value chains to enable a circular economy we encourage you to apply to the accelerator program by September 8th!
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The Peril and Promise of Solar Geoengineering
Monday, September 30
6:00PM
Harvard, Geo Lecture Hall (100), 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
David Keith, Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics, SEAS; Professor of Public Policy, HKS.
Solar geoengineering research aims to reduce the impacts of global climate change. One possibility is to put aerosols into the stratosphere to alter Earth’s energy budget. This emerging technology entails risks and uncertainties, along with serious challenges to global governance. The greatest threat, perhaps, is that it will be used as a technical fix and encourage people to avoid the emissions cuts that are fundamental to curbing long-term climate risks. David Keith will describe the simple physics underlying the climate’s response to stratospheric aerosols, the risks, and the trade-offs among solar geoengineering, carbon removal, and emissions reductions.
Contact Name: hmnh@hmsc.harvard.edu
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How Finance Works: The HBR Guide to Thinking Smart About the Numbers
Monday, September 30
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
Harvard Coop, 1400 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
If you're not a numbers person, then finance can be intimidating and easy to ignore. But if you want to advance in your career, you'll need to make smart financial decisions and develop the confidence to clearly communicate those decisions to others. In How Finance Works, Mihir Desai--a professor at Harvard Business School and author of The Wisdom of Finance--guides you into the complex but endlessly fascinating world of finance, demystifying it in the process.
About the Author: Mihir Desai is the Mizuho Financial Group Professor of Finance at Harvard Business School and a Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. An award-winning teacher and a leading scholar of corporate finance and tax policy, Professor Desai has been educating varied student populations for nearly twenty years, including senior executives from around the world, MBA students, undergraduates, and lawyers. Professor Desai has published more than 25 case studies and a casebook, and he has testified before the US Congress on policy issues. He is the author of Wisdom of Finance (2017), which was long-listed for the Financial Times & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award.
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Tuesday, October 1 - Thursday, October 3
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Hubweek 2019 Fall Festival
Tuesday, October 1 - Thursday, October 3
Seaport District, Boston
RSVP at https://www.hubweek.org/register
Cost: $10 - $250
3 days. 50+ speakers. Infinite potential.
HubWeek’s fifth annual Fall Festival is a distillation of Boston’s brainpower: a concentrated dose of the city’s inventiveness, with none of its standoffishness.
Join us and thousands of fellow forward-thinking Bostonians as we transform the Seaport into a mind-expanding celebration of art, science, and tech.
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Tuesday, October 1
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Cambridge's Waste... the good, the bad, the cleen, the dirty
Tuesday, October 1
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building E51-57, 70 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Our trash, recycling, and composting systems are confusing! Every city and building you go into has different signage and a different system. During the Waste Alliance's first lecture of the year, we will be bringing in three local experts to share their expertise from MIT to the City of Cambridge.
Join us for this panel to get all your questions answered and enjoy a free lunch!
Sign up here for lunch: http://www.bit.ly/wastelecture
Panelists:
Sarah Levy, Founder and Owner of Cleenland
Brian Goldberg, Assistant Director of MIT Office of Sustainability
Michael Orr, Director of Recycling, City of Cambridge
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Speaker Series: Brandi Collins-Dexter
Tuesday, October 1
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Harvard, Wexner 434AB, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Brandi Collins-Dexter is the Senior Campaign Director at Color Of Change, where she oversees the media, culture and economic justice team. She has led a number of successful and highly visible campaigns for corporate and government accountability and has also worked extensively with Silicon Valley companies on key corporate policy changes. Collins-Dexter has testified in front of congress on the issue of online privacy, and is a regular commentator in the media on racial justice and tech. While at the Shorenstein Center, Collins-Dexter will write a paper on the digital ecosystem and how it has forever altered the political, economic, sociological and psychological ways in which we engage offline.
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Tuesday Seminar Series: Democratic Deepening and Political Parties: The National Implementation of Binding Participatory Institutions
WHEN Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019, 12 – 1:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CGIS South, S250, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies
SPEAKER(S) Jared Abbott, PhD candidate, Department of Government
Moderator: Fernando Bizzarro, PhD student, Department of Government; Graduate Student Associate, DRCLAS
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO drclas@fas.harvard.edu
DETAILS Why are local-level participatory institutions implemented nationally in some countries but only adopted on paper in others? Through detailed case studies of Venezuela and Ecuador, I show that this occurs when 1) the incumbent part is under pressure from below to implement BPIs, and 2), the party’s political opponents are not capable of taking advantage of BPIs for their own electoral gain. Under these conditions, parties will place a lower value on the costs of BPI implementation than on electoral benefits they offer.
Jared Abbott is a PhD candidate in Government at Harvard University.
Fernando Bizzarro is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Government at Harvard and a Graduate Student Associate to the DRCLAS. A political scientist from Brazil, he researches the nature, causes, and consequences of democracy and political parties in Latin America.
The Tuesday Seminar Series is a bring your own brown bag lunch series. Please feel free to enjoy your lunch at the lecture, drinks will be provided.
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Use of Systems Thinking and Causal Loop Diagrams to Understand Transportation Planning Challenges
Tuesday, October 1
12:30 PM – 2:00 PM EDT
MIT, Building 9-451, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
In my talk, I will explore the use of systems thinking and causal loop diagrams as a means of interrogating difficult transportation planning problems and reducing those problems to manageable segments for further analysis. The use of systems thinking is critical to understanding complicated problems and developing interdisciplinary solutions. This topic will be explored through discussion of real-world problems viewed through the lens of systems thinking with examples of causal loop diagrams. The learning objective of this lecture is to familiarize the audience with systems thinking, causal loop diagrams, and their practical application to transportation planning problems.
BIO: William F. Lyons, Jr. is the Founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Fort Hill Companies LLC. Mr. Lyons has more than 27 years of professional experience in consulting, government, and technology, and is a highly respected executive, entrepreneur, and thought leader. Bill serves as a subject matter expert and trusted advisor on transportation, land use, urban design, and real estate matters. As a planner, engineer, and attorney, his experience includes infrastructure projects with a national and international perspective, having consulted for clients on five continents and throughout the United States. Bill has provided professional engineering and planning services to a wide array of public and private sector clients. He has served in a professional capacity with the Massachusetts Highway Department (now Massachusetts Department of Transportation – Highway Division) and as the Traffic Director for the City of Somerville, Massachusetts. Over the past two decades, Bill has played a key role in the launching of ten firms. Bill is a Colonel in the US Army Reserves, where he currently serves as the Deputy Director of Logistics of the US Army Corps of Engineers
Bill holds a Juris Doctor from Suffolk University Law School, a Master of Studies in Sustainability Leadership from the University of Cambridge, a Master of Transportation and Urban Systems from North Dakota State University, a Master of Strategic Studies from the United States Army War College, and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Norwich University. Bill is a licensed professional engineer, a licensed attorney, a licensed planner, and a licensed real estate broker. His certifications include: Professional Traffic Operations Engineer (PTOE), Professional Transportation Planner (PTP); American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP); Certified Transportation Planner (CTP); and Envision Sustainability Professional (ENV SP).
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Energy Efficiency Jobs in America: Leading America’s Energy Sector Workforce
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
1 - 2:30 PM Eastern
Energy efficiency continues to lead America’s energy sector when it comes to job creation. More than 2.3 million Americans now work in advanced HVAC, efficient lighting, appliance manufacturing and construction - making our buildings, schools and offices more efficient while driving down utility bills and helping our environment. Energy efficiency jobs grew by 3.4 percent in 2018, outpacing every other energy sector.
Please join E2 and E4TheFuture to learn more about the just-released 2019 Energy Efficiency Jobs in America report, including details on how many EE workers there are in your state, county, congressional and legislative districts. Discover which jobs are growing the fastest, and what policies are needed to keep these good jobs growing.
Speakers:
Pat Stanton, Director of Policy, E4TheFuture
Philip Jordan, Vice President and Principal, BW Research Partnership (report author)
Bob Keefe, Executive Director, E2
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Beyond the Headlines: The Russia Trap
Tuesday, October 1
2:30 pm to 2:00 pm
BU, 121 Bay State Road, Boston
RSVP to eventsps@bu.edu
Join us as our Beyond the Headlines series continues with a discussion entitled "The Russia Trap: How Our Shadow War with Russia Could Spiral into Nuclear Catastrophe.”
Panelists include George Beebe, VP of the Center for the National Interest & former head of the CIA’s Russia Desk; and Pardee School Prof. Joseph Wippl. The discussion will be led by Pardee School Prof. Igor Lukes.
A light lunch will be provided. RSVP to eventsps@bu.edu
Limited seating. Doors close when room capacity is reached.
The building is located in an historic district and is not ADA-accessible.
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Humanitarianism and Mass Migration: Confronting the World Crisis
WHEN Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019, 5:30 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Longfellow Hall, 13 Appian Way, Cambridge
TYPE OF EVENT Forum
TOPIC Global and Comparative Education
PROGRAM/DEPARTMENT Askwith Forum
BUILDING/ROOM Askwith Hall
CONTACT NAME Donor and Alumni Relations
CONTACT EMAIL askwith_forums@gse.harvard.edu
SPONSORING ORGANIZATION/DEPARTMENT Harvard Graduate School of Education
REGISTRATION REQUIRED No
ADMISSION FEE This event is free and open to the public.
FEATURED EVENT Askwith Forums
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education
DETAILS An Askwith Forum to celebrate the launch of the Immigration Initiative at Harvard.
Speaker: Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, Wasserman Dean and Distinguished Professor of Education, UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies
Introduction: Roberto Gonzales, Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education; Director, Immigration Initiative at Harvard
Join us to celebrate the launch of the Immigration Initiative at Harvard, a University-wide effort to promote intellectual exchange, community support, and action on immigration policy and with immigrant communities.
This special Askwith Forum launch event will feature Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, a worldwide expert on urgent questions of globalization, immigration, and education. Over the course of a three-decade career, Suárez-Orozco has worked to understand the causes and consequences of mass migration. He offers a compelling, interdisciplinary lens on the mass migrations of the 21st century, with an emphasis on heath, mental health, and educational and legal protections for displaced children and families.
The Immigration Initiative at Harvard is a convening place for scholars, students, and policy leaders working on issues of immigration — and a clearinghouse for rapid-response, nonpartisan research and usable knowledge for media, policymakers, and community practitioners.
We invite you to attend the Ed School’s signature public lecture series which highlights leaders in the field, shares new knowledge, generates spirited conversation, and offers insight into the highest priority challenges facing education.
**Seating is first come, first seated.
To receive the Askwith Forums e-newsletter for up-to-date information,
please sign up at gse.harvard.edu/askwith The Immigration Initiative at Harvard is a convening place for scholars, students, and policy leaders working on issues of immigration — and a clearinghouse for rapid-response, nonpartisan research and usable knowledge for media, policymakers, and community practitioners. Learn more at http://immigrationinitiative.harvard.edu
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Raj Rewal: Timeless Rasa & the Spirit of Our Times for Epic Works
WHEN Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019, 6 – 7:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CGIS South, S020, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute
SPEAKER(S) Raj Rewal, Architect
COST Free
CONTACT INFO Selmon Rafey
DETAILS Raj Rewal is internationally recognized for the creation of buildings that respond with sensitivity to the complex demands of rapid urbanization, climate, and culture. Earlier in his career, his focus on low-cost housing led him to design a large number of dwelling units, fragmented into smaller aggregations enclosing a variety of spaces for different building types — an experience that led him to create a series of public projects in a humane manner, for works of epic proportions. Rewal will discuss his past work in public housing, the lessons learned from the cities of Rajasthan, Mediterranean villages, and high-density developments, and how the study of the existing traditional pattern of living can provide cues for place-making that can promote community activities.
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Civil Rights and the Environment
Tuesday, October 1
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EDT
Suffolk University Law School, 120 Tremont Street, Boston
Exploring the role of environmental law in advocating for healthy, diverse communities throughout Massachusetts.
Join Suffolk University Law School's Environmental Law Society, Black Law Student Association, and American Constitution Society for a panel exploring the role of law in advocating for healthy communities throughout Massachusetts. In particular, the conversation will center on communities that have historically been marginalized and forced to endure the brunt of environmental hazards and pollution. Topic areas of interest include exposure to toxics, community lawyering, and climate resilience. How can we flip the script and promote legal services that partner with local communities and address the needs of those communities through advocacy, versus legal services that “cherry pick” environmental issues and rely on identified issues from institutional bodies?
What is being done in the space of Environmental Justice? What should law students know about the overlapping nature of environmental law and impact/enforcement litigation? How can EJ be a lens through which we see policy, legal services, and advocacy? Join us for an evening of insight and conversation. Students, faculty, and practitioners are all welcome.
This event will count toward CLE credit for SULS students.
Location: Suffolk University Law School, Sargent Hall, First Floor Function Room
6:00-6:15: Networking, light food and refreshments
6:15-7:15: Panel discussion, moderated by Suffolk Law Prof. Sharmila Murthy
7:15-7:30: Brief Q&A with audience
7:30-8:00: Networking, light food and refreshments
Panelists:
Amy Laura Cahn: Interim Director, Healthy Communities & Environmental Justice Program, Conservation Law Foundation
Melissa Hoffer: Chief, Energy & Environment Bureau, Massachusetts Attorney General's Office
Paul Lee: Of Counsel, Goodwin Procter LLP
Travis McCready: President and CEO, Massachusetts Life Sciences Center
Erica Walker: Founder, Noise and the City; Postdoctoral researcher, Boston University School of Public Health in the Department of Environmental Health
For questions or inquiries, contact Environmental Law Society president Christina Gregg at cgregg@su.suffolk.edu.
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Owning It! Sustainability and Worker Cooperatives
Tuesday, October 1
6:00 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
The Venture Cafe - Cambridge Innovation Center, 1 Broadway, 5th Floor, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/owning-it-sustainability-and-worker-cooperatives-tickets-72256417891
Cost: $8
Dramatic shifts in work are generating worker owned businesses, where it's not just the few at the top that stand to win.
Building a sustainable economy goes well beyond changing our consumption and the physical infrastructure we build – it’s about structuring companies and organizations in ways that value employees, giving them a greater role in creating the future we desire.
To crib Richard Branson, Virgin’s employees are the most important customers. Taking it a step further, if employees are also owners, how might that amplify the work of sustainability and alignment with a company's mission?
Employee-owned cooperatives can be a powerful model for aligning sustainability and corporate culture since giving workers a voice in running their organizations can strengthen the bonds between them and equip companies for long-term growth. Treating workers with respect and investing in them - quite literally - aligns with the values of sustainability.
New England is a hotbed of activity for worker-owned endeavors and NGOs that provide technical assistance, financing and guidance. On October 1st we’ll explore the nexus of sustainability and employee-owned co-ops. Our initial presenters are slated to be:
ReVision Energy – an employee-owned solar and renewable energy contractor, whose mission is to “lead our community in solving the environmental problems caused by fossil fuels while alleviating economic and social injustice.”
CERO COOP – Cooperative Energy, Recycling, and Organic is an award-winning, Dorchester-based commercial composter. CERO's mission is to “keep food waste out of landfills, save money for clients and provide good green jobs for Boston's hard working communities.”
Equal Exchange - a 33 year old worker-owned co-op in MA sells fair-trade coffee, chocolate, tea, fruit, and nuts with a mission to build economically just and environmentally sound trade partnerships fostering mutually beneficial connections between farmers and consumers.
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The Three Dimensions of Freedom
Tuesday, October 1
6:30 PM
Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes musician, activist, and bestselling author BILLY BRAGG for a discussion of his latest book, The Three Dimensions of Freedom. He will be joined in conversation by renowned legal scholar CASS R. SUNSTEIN.
About The Three Dimensions of Freedom
We live in a world where strongman politics are rising; neo-liberalism has hollowed out political parties; and corporations have undermined democracy. Ordinary voters feel helpless to effect change, resulting in outbreaks of populist anger, and traditional platforms for debate are losing their viability as readers source information online.
In this short and vital polemic, progressive thinker and activist Billy Bragg argues that accountability is the antidote to authoritarianism, and that without it, we can never truly be free. He shows us that Freedom requires three dimensions to function: Liberty, Equality, and Accountability—and the result is a three dimensional space in which freedom can be exercised by all.
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These Truths: A History of the United States
Tuesday, October 1
7:00 PM (Doors at 6:30)
WBUR CitySpace, 890 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
Cost: $10 - $21.25
Harvard Book Store and WBUR welcome renowned historian and writer JILL LEPORE for the paperback release of her New York Times bestselling, critically acclaimed book, These Truths: A History of the United States. She will be joined in conversation by award-winning host of NPR's "Here and Now," ROBIN YOUNG.
About These Truths
Widely hailed for its “sweeping, sobering account of the American past” (New York Times Book Review), Jill Lepore’s one-volume history of America places truth itself―a devotion to facts, proof, and evidence―at the center of the nation’s history. The American experiment rests on three ideas―“these truths,” Jefferson called them―political equality, natural rights, and the sovereignty of the people. But has the nation, and democracy itself, delivered on that promise?
These Truths tells this uniquely American story, beginning in 1492, asking whether the course of events over more than five centuries has proven the nation’s truths, or belied them. To answer that question, Lepore wrestles with the state of American politics, the legacy of slavery, the persistence of inequality, and the nature of technological change. “A nation born in contradiction… will fight, forever, over the meaning of its history,” Lepore writes, but engaging in that struggle by studying the past is part of the work of citizenship. With These Truths, Lepore has produced a book that will shape our view of American history for decades to come.
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